


I was here

by CoolChicken78



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I dont know how to tag, Mentioned Alexis | Quackity, Mentioned Cara | CaptainPuffy, Mentioned Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Grayson | Purpled, Mentioned Karl Jacobs, Mentioned Niki | Nihachu, Mentioned Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Toby Smith | Tubbo, Mentioned TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Probably angst at some point, Protective Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), also im going to include lots of people, also most of the characters are minors in this so no shipping and stuff cause yeah, au where phil basically teaches and looks after everyone with powers (lol obviously), au where they all have powers including ranboo but he doesnt know yet, captain puffy?? why is there no tag for her?!, oh also sam ponk and hbomb and bad and skeppy and all that lot will be involved too at points :))), powers au, why is there no connor tag am i just stupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolChicken78/pseuds/CoolChicken78
Summary: In which Ranboo is adopted into a foster family where everything is not quite as it seems.Or where Ranboo discovers there's a reason why he never quite seemed normal...
Comments: 129
Kudos: 481





	1. Chapter One

City sky-scrapers made out of concrete and glass that were so tall that the tops disappeared into the clouds blurred into the large houses of the suburbs made out of brick with fancy pools in the backyards and happy kids playing out-front in gardens with grass so perfect it looked fake, and then eventually the suburbs blurred into farm land and large green fields as the small blue car sped away from the big city, leaving the hustle and bustle and pollution behind them. 

Ranboo gulped nervously and turned his music up slightly, Lemon Demon blasting through his headphones as his gloved fingers tapping a anxious rhythm against his leg, his eyes glued to the rapidly changing terrain outside the car's almost too clean window. 

He absentmindedly picked at the phone case on the new iPhone he'd been given. Ranboo hadn't had a phone in months, the last one he'd had he had disposed of to avoid being tracked when he ran from his last Foster home. He'd been living on his own in the city for months, surviving well, when a woman had found him. This woman had somehow managed to talk her way into getting him food and then somehow had known who he was, threatening to call the police if he didn't come with her to be put back into the system. If he remembered correctly, her name had been Puffy, and she had seemed way too young to be working in Foster care. 

It was annoying that he had been caught, even if Puffy had given him a phone and let him download music and seemed nice enough, especially as it now meant he was being carted off to some new home with another random woman. Oh well, he'd probably run again soon.

After a few minutes he realised the woman driving the car was speaking, her lips moving and forming silent words in the mirror. He paused his music and caught the end of what she was saying.

"Nervous?" She asked kindly, glancing in the mirror to look at the teenage boy cramped in the backseat with a rucksack. 

_What kind of question was that?_ Ranboo thought to himself. Of course he was nervous. In fact, he was so nervous that he felt like his stomach was doing back flips as he resisted the urge to throw up despite not having eaten breakfast that morning - which was just normal for him after living on the streets for so long.

He forced a smile as he made eye contact with the lady driving, he had forgotten her name but she seemed nice enough with her bright green hair and bird tattoo on her cheekbone and friendly smiles. "A little."

She nodded, eyes going back to concentrating on the road ahead of them. "Phil is a great guy with great kids, there's no need to be worried."

Ranboo resisted the urge to roll his eyes at this. She might be nice, but she was a bit dim. He was going to a new foster home with a new foster parent and new foster kids that he had never met before... of course he was going to be nervous. Plus there was a difference between being nervous and being worried.

Ranboo pressed play on his music and turned it up even more, knowing that she could now hear it through his headphones and hoping she took the hint that he really didn't want to talk. He just wanted to zone out and concentrate on his music, thinking about what they might be like.

Luckily she did and didn't try to start a conversation again. 

An hour or so later, he felt the car slowing as they pulled onto a road on the edge of the town they had been driving through. The car came to a stop by the house right at the very end.

Ranboo paused his music again and clutched his battered rucksack to his chest nervously, knowing they had arrived.

The woman pulled the keys out of the ignition as the engine turned off and turned to look at the nervous bundle of energy that was the teen as he stared out at the house that was about to become his home.

It was a reasonably large house with lots of windows (Ranboo definitely saw two faces peering out of one near the top of the house) and a garden in front of it that was slightly overgrown and had lots of flowers planted around the edge - probably planted by one of the other foster kids from the messy look of them, Ranboo thought. The house was right next to a large field, with a wood leading off from that. If he squinted, he could see a few figures balancing on a fence at the very end of the field, next to the woods. Maybe they lived in this house too. 

Ranboo realised he'd zoned out again when the woman got out of the car and opened the back of the car, pulling out the bags of new clothes that he'd been supplied with.

He swallowed again and took a deep breath to steady himself before he opened the door of the car, his long legs stepping out and stretching for the first time in hours. He felt stiff, his tall teenage body not meant for sitting cramped in a car for that long.

The smell of fresh air hit his nose, so very different from the smell of city air that it temporarily shocked the boy as he had never been this far out in the country before. 

The woman walked to the door with him, letting him take in the area in peace and holding most of his bags for him.

"Ready?" She asked him, pushing a strand of green hair out of her face.

Ranboo felt bad for forgetting her name, but it was way too late to ask now.

He nodded and she rang the doorbell.

The sound chimed through the house and there was a few seconds of silence.

Then suddenly, a cacophony of loud noise broke through the once relatively silent household, surprising Ranboo but barely making the woman flinch.

The window to their right was open a crack, the conversation of the people inside easily heard.

"I'LL GET IT!" A boy with a British accent shouted.

"NO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY YOU BITCH! I'M GETTING IT!" Screamed another boy with a British accent, although his accent was different, much more ... northern maybe? Ranboo didn't know British accents that well, he had only met one British person in his life, and that was a seven year old girl from London.

"Both of you shut up and go back to Mario, I'll get the door." Another voice huffed, this one American, also male.

"FUCK OFF PURPLED!" Screeched that second British voice, clearly trying to race to get to the front door if the crashing from inside was any indication.

There was a loud crashing sound and then someone shouted, "OW YOU MASSIVE DICKHEAD! THAT HURT!"

"What the fuck? You were the one who pushed me Tommy! I was literally just stood in the doorway!" An incredulous voice (Purpled?) said.

To which that same British voice (Tommy?) responded, "No! You-"

A tired sounding voice then cut in, "Both of you shut up, me and Niki are trying to write music and we can't because of you loud fucks." Again the voice was male and British.

"But Wilbur, Purpled pushe-"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did"

"Oh fuck off Tommy."

"No! You fuck off you pussy!"

The first British voice they had heard suddenly cut in, "Err... guys? They're still at the door... someone should get it?"

"Where's Phil?" Asked Wilbur. "Why hasn't he got it, he knew the new kid was coming today, Puffy called yesterday to tell him she found another one."

_Another what? Another kid? Why did this Wilbur guy say it like that?_

"Upstairs removing a spider from George's bedroom because he's high-key screaming and freaking out." Laughed a new voice, this one also American but with a southern accent. Texas, if Ranboo was correct.

Ranboo was starting to feel awkward now, still no one had answered the door.

"Oh." Wilbur sighed. "Well I guess I'll get the door then."

Ranboo had no idea why they were all arguing over who opened the door anyway.

The headphones Puffy had given him were hanging around his neck over his grey tee-shirt now and he was tempted to put them back on and blast music to make himself less anxious, but now wasn't the time.

Finally, the large door swung open, revealing a middle-aged man with blonde hair that sort of looked strawberry-blonde when the sun hit it tied back in a low messy bun and warm brown eyes, dressed in jeans and a rather messily knitted jumper made of various shades of green wool that clearly didn't match with rough white stripes terribly added in. Phil looked much less intimidating in this environment than he had in the photo Puffy had shown him where he was dressed in a smart suit, despite the same friendly expression and contagious grin. Behind him, Ranboo could see at least three teenage boys probably around his age peaking around a door frame curiously, only for an older boy dressed in a yellow jumper and brown hair to usher them back into the room, winking at Ranboo when they made eye contact. 

"Hi! Sorry it took so long, I was upstairs removing a spider from George's room. He's terrified of them. One of the other boys probably put it in his room for that exact reason." Someone snorted in the other room and Phil raised his voice. "And I'll be finding out who it was later and they'll be washing the dishes after every meal for the next three days!" Which immediately made whoever was laughing in the other room sober up immediately.

He grinned up at Ranboo (because Ranboo was much taller, standing at 6'6 and still growing), "It's great to meet you Ranboo. I can take it from here Marie, thanks."

Marie smiled, all the official paperwork and stuff already having been sorted out, and placed the bags of clothes and another bag with something that thudded (books maybe?) on the doorstep and waving goodbye to the tall boy and Phil.

Ranboo watched her leave, finally knowing the woman's name. It was weird, because the name "Marie" didn't really fit her in his opinion. _Eh, oh well. Why was he concentrating on that right now anyway?_

Phil grabbed some of his bags and moved them into the hallway, "For now you can just leave your bags here, we can move them into your room later. Is that alright?"

Ranboo nodded, aware of the fact that he still hadn't said anything. 

He stepped into the house, hyper aware of everything as Phil closed the door behind him.

Ranboo noticed that Phil wasn't wearing shoes and felt comfortable enough to take his off too. He hated wearing shoes in the house, it felt weird and dirty, but some homes he'd been in in the past had looked at him weird when he took them off and he didn't want to make another bad first impression. 

He'd seen the outside of the house and it had looked big, but it was much bigger than he had expected. There was a hallway leading away from the front door and a carpeted staircase directly up ahead, to their left was the room through an open archway where boyish noises of joy and occasional crashes could be heard coming from, to their right was another room through a similarly shaped archway with a large table and multiple mismatched chairs surrounding it. There was a pink-haired girl sat at it scribbling in a notepad with sheets of music around her and two guitars abandoned on top of the table. She had glanced up briefly when Ranboo entered and smiled kindly, but she knew now wasn't the time to introduce herself and went back to writing. Ranboo assumed she might be Niki. The floor plan was open yet also designed to give the rooms enough privacy that you couldn't actually see into them from certain angles, for example, Ranboo couldn't see the noisy boys from where they were right now. He also noticed that the walls were lined with photos of various boys at lots of different ages, occasionally scattered with the same few girls at similar ages.

"Well, there's a few options now. You can meet some of the boys if you like, you probably heard them earlier because they're so loud, I can show you your room and you can settle in, or something else. It's up to you really. Only rule here is that usually we all eat together and that you clean up after yourself, which most of them don't do anyway so don't worry about that." Phil grinned, leaving it up to Ranboo as what to do.

Ranboo didn't think he could handle meeting people right now, he was too nervous. He felt weird, like there was something off about Phil, "Can you show me my room? If that's alright?"

"Course! Grab as many of your bags as possible, although it is on the top floor so you might want to leave some and we'll come back and get them?" 

"Okay." Ranboo muttered, picking up all the bags Phil hadn't just picked up, deciding he would rather struggle up the stairs once rather than multiple times despite the fact it would probably be so much easier if he just made multiple trips - that just felt like more effort.

Phil started talking so Ranboo didn't have to, conversation seemingly coming easily to the man as he gently started the process of easing a new foster kid into the chaotic, mismatched family.

They passed the room where all the noise had been coming from on their way to the stairs, and Ranboo got his first proper glimpse of some of the people he would now be living with. There were beanbags and sofas and a large TV and bookshelf in the room, five people lounging in various positions around it. All boys, two with blond hair and three brunettes, one of whom was on his phone. One of the ones with blond hair made eye contact with him and grinned widely, clearly very excited. Ranboo ducked his head awkwardly, feeling shy as he felt them all staring at him (even the one who had previously been smirking at something on his phone) as he passed. 

On the first floor they passed four rooms, two of which had closed doors and Phil pointed one out as being someone called Technoblade's room and the other being Wilbur's, the third room being a bathroom that connected the two rooms. Apparently the other room at the very end was Phil's room. They continued up another flight of stairs to a floor with four rooms on, one was another bathroom (Ranboo knew this because the door of it was open). Phil told him that they were Sapnap, George and Purpled's bedrooms. They went up yet another flight of stairs and Ranboo was starting to regret not making more than one trip with his new things. There were five rooms on this floor. Another bathroom, a room with "Big Man Tubbo and Big Man Tommy's Room DO NOT ENTER" scribbled messily on the door, another room full of bean bags and couches, a room opposite Tommy and Tubbo's that Phil told him was someone called Alex's (or Quackity as apparently most people called him) room, and finally a room that was technically a spare one but apparently was unofficially Niki's as she slept over so often.

The final flight of stairs led right into the roof of the house and up to a small landing with two doors on it. Phil somehow managed to open the door closest to the top of the stairs even with his hands full of bags.

"And this is your room." He said, carefully dropping Ranboo's bags by the door. "I left it blank so you can decorate it however you like. We can go shopping at the weekend for paint and furniture and anything else you want is you like? If you like we can take some of the boys, or not if you don't want to."

Ranboo was slightly in shock, never having had a room this big before in his life, "This is _my_ room?"

Phil laughed, beaming happily at the boys reaction. "Yes."

"Seriously?" Ranboo grinned, imagining all the space he could have to lay on the floor and draw while listening to music, or sit on a beanbag... or even a couch, there was that much room! Although he didn't want to spend too much of Phil's money, so maybe just a beanbag... 

Then he remembered that he wasn't staying long, his joy vanishing. Either he'd end up running or he'd get kicked out soon enough, the honeymoon phase of getting Ranboo as a new foster kid always wore off quickly...

"Yeah mate! Seriously! I was going to apologise that you had to be up here all by yourself but from your reaction I'm assuming that this is how you'd prefer it anyway." Phil smiled, his smile not having fully left his face since being in Ranboo's presence. 

"This is great, thanks Phil." Ranboo forced a fake smile. 

"S'alright mate. Need any help unpacking?"

"I'm fine just unpacking by myself if that's alright?" Ranboo said, not wanting to spend too much time with Phil as he didn't want to become attached.

"Course that's alright. Dinner's at eight today, spend as much time settling in as you like and don't feel pressured into talking to any of the boys before you feel ready to. I can tell them not to come up and bother you if you like?" Phil said, now stood in the doorway. "A word of advice, it usually gets chaotic when we eat because the boys often bring home friends and there's a lot of us. It might be easier for you to introduce yourself to a few of the boys before that so you don't meet everyone at the same time."

Ranboo nodded and Phil smiled, closing the door behind him (which he appreciated because in a few past foster homes they preferred open doors and one hadn't even let him have a door on his shared bedroom, resulting in him and the boy he was sharing with hanging a pride flag over the frame for privacy - which had resulted in both of them not receiving dinner for a week and extra chores, it had been worth it though).

The room was even bigger than he had realised at first glance, Ranboo realised, taking it in again. The room took up the majority of the loft, the floor that was carpeted with seemingly new dark grey carpet, the slanted roof lit up by some fairy lights that had been woven around almost invisible nails stuck into the wooden frames. There was lots of natural light flowing into the room through two large windows that looked out over the front of the house and onto the street and one slightly smaller one with a sort of window seat that when Ranboo walked over too, he could see out of the back of the house and he realised there was more garden that backed onto more fields (where he could see three teenagers ragging each other about). The windows didn't have blinds or curtains on yet, and Ranboo assumed Phil was planning to let him choose some when they went shopping. There was a large bed at the other end of the room to where you entered, pushed next to one of the wooden beams that supported the wooden rafters that were above his head, forming the triangles that kept the roof upright, the head of the bed flush against the wall. To his immense surprise, the bed was actually big enough for him, like Phil had remembered his height and gone out of his way to find a bed that would be comfortable for him, unlike with past families he had been with when they had been annoyed that he was too tall for the beds and refused to buy new ones (which Ranboo understood, although it was awkward and uncomfortable for him). There was a desk in front of one of the windows facing the street, with a slightly worn but comfy-looking gaming chair tucked under it. There was also a set of drawers and a semi-walk in closet which had been built in the corner of the room where the wall did a sort of L shape where the landing outside his room ended. It had a railing attached to the wooden beam above it with a curtain attached to it. He assumed it was so he could get dressed in private if there happened to be someone in his room with him.

Ranboo realised that there wasn't a bathroom up here, but that was fine, he assumed he could use the one downstairs. 

The room was amazing. 

He had never had his own room, let alone one this big.

It was a pity he wouldn't be able to stay.

Ranboo pulled on his headphones and turned his music back up to full blast as he started unpacking. 

He was at it for maybe an hour, unpacking all of his clothes first (surprised to find that the clothes Puffy had provided were actually his style) and placing them in draws and hanging them on hangers that hung from another metal pole that hung from the roof that had been added into the closet area and placing them on shelves along with his old pair of shoes (the ones that were good for running), his new pair being downstairs on the shoe rack by the front door along with the jackets that were hung up on the walls. He then unpacked his music stuff, bringing out his treasured record that he had kept in his rucksack while on the run (he knew it was old school, but he loved it even if he couldn't play it because the money he had been saving up for a good quality record player had been stolen and spent on alcohol by his previous foster parents), and placing it in a box before sliding it safely under his bed. Another ten minutes later and he was just finishing off putting the few photos he owned of friends he'd made in the past into the top drawer of his bedside table and placing a framed picture of a cat on the top of the table.

He was going to miss his cat, having left it behind in the city when Puffy forced him to come with her, not able to collect the stray cat that had adopted him (yes, adopted him) before he left.

Ranboo turned around and almost had a heart attack when he saw the figure stood in the door way.

He breathed out heavily, clutching his hand to his chest as his heart beat so fast he thought it would burst out of his chest.

"Jesus." He breathed heavily, pulling his headphones off. "Oh shoot. You freakin scared me half to death."

The teen in the doorway smiled sheepishly, still stood in the doorway awkwardly.

"Er, sorry about that... I knocked but you didn't answer." Another British accent. 

"I had my music on." Ranboo said. "I didn't hear you."

"Sorry." The man apologised again. He was older than Ranboo but definitely younger than Phil, probably in his late teens. "I'm George by the way. I though I'd come and introduce myself so you at least know someone in the house before you have to sit through dinner." He paused when he noticed Ranboo's face, his pale cheeks flushing bright red as he stammered nervously, "Er, I-I can go though if you want privacy?"

Ranboo realised he probably looked annoyed or intimidating, when in fact he was just socially awkward and still recovering from almost having a heart attack. 

"No!" Ranboo said, slightly louder than he'd intended when George turned to leave, clearly embarrassed. "No, don't worry it's fine. I'm Ranboo, it's nice to meet you"

George relaxed, his blush receding slightly (although not fully) as he turned back to face the teen, smiling slightly.

He was small compared to Ranboo, but not small. He was probably around 5'9 or 5'10 if Ranboo had to guess. He had dark brown hair and similarly coloured eyes. He seemed nice enough, and he was wearing black sweats and a dark blue slightly over sized hoodie with a small white rectangle outlined in red with the numbers "404" on in the same red colour. 

"Need any help unpacking or anything?" George asked, glancing at the almost empty trash bag on Ranboo's bed.

Ranboo shook his head, music still drifting quietly from his headphones. "I'm alright thanks, almost finished now."

"Oh." George said, not sure what to say now.

Ranboo finished his unpacking and then turned to where George was stood in the doorway still.

"How old are you? If you don't mind me asking?" Ranboo suddenly asked.

George looked surprised at the sudden question but answered anyway. "I'm 18, oldest in the house apart from Phil. Quackity and Sapnap are 18 too. So are Techno and Will, twins by the way but Techno is older by two minutes. I'm actually not in the foster system anymore, I just decided to stay with Phil." George smiled nervously. "Plus Phil doesn't actually mind. He takes in everyone and anyone, Quackity isn't even a foster kid, he just fell out with his family and Phil basically adopted him."

"Oh. Cool." Ranboo replied. "I'm seventeen."

George broke the last of the awkwardness in the air by grinning and laughing, "Tommy isn't going to like that."

Ranboo frowned, confused at George's amusement. 

George noticed and explained, "Tommy's the youngest, he hates it because everyone always teases him about being a child. He was hoping you'd be younger than him when Phil told us all that you were coming and that you were around the same age as Tubbo, Tommy and Purpled."

"Oh." Ranboo muttered, not finding it as funny as George did because he didn't actually know any of these people yet.

George then sat with Ranboo and answered all his questions about the family (which wasn't many because Ranboo was just gathering the need to know information in case any of them might steal from him or other worse things) and how things worked here. 

They sat on the floor in his room for a while and Ranboo learned that some other frequent people who ate with them at meal times and people who stayed overnight or just hung out here were Karl, Puffy (the same Puffy who had found him maybe?), Niki, Eret, Connor, and someone named Dream - apparently there were more people who sometimes came as well. 

Ranboo started to wonder how many people there actually were in this community that they seemed to have built, because it felt like a lot.

Eventually, George got a text on his phone and he glanced at it. Ranboo caught a glimpse of the name (not that he was looking) "Dream" and that was it. George left a few minutes after that, leaving Ranboo in his room. 

Once George was gone, Ranboo reached into his battered rucksack (the one that he had always carried with him) and brought out two things. One was a thick journal with a couple of loose pages, clearly worn and almost as battered as his rucksack, with the words "DO NOT READ!" scratched into the cover. Not very effective but Ranboo's ten year old self had decided that it would keep people out (it didn't). The other was another book, although this one was a sketch pad. Ranboo hid them both between his mattress and the bed frame by his pillow - that way he couldn't feel them when laying down.

At ten minutes to eight, he heard Phil shouting downstairs, calling everyone who was in the house to come eat.

Ranboo took a deep breath, preparing himself for the social chaos that apparently was meal times here.

He left his room and descended the multiple flights of stairs, noticing how multiple bedroom doors had been left open as the inhabitants had rushed for food, making it so he could glimpse the inside of them. Tommy and Tubbo's room was smaller than Ranboo's with white walls and black carpet, but still it was big with two single beds on opposite sides of the room, one with dark red covers and the other with dark green. Both beds were unmade and the room was chaotically messy, a TV on the wall with two abandoned controllers on beanbags in front of it, the sounds of Mario Kart still playing in the background - clearly the two had left in the middle of a game, not even bothering to pause it. Sapnap's door was also open (although George's wasn't), showing Ranboo a glimpse of a double bed with charcoal grey covers, dark red walls and a gaming PC on a desk. Purpled's door was also open, showing a surprisingly plain and tidy room with a single bed with dark purple covers, all the walls white apart from one that was painted purple, he couldn't see further into the room from the stairs. Finally, on the last floor of bedrooms, only Wilbur's door was open, allowing him a glimpse of walls covered in posters of bands and musicians, photos of people who were probably his friends and family (but Ranboo couldn't tell from this distance) scattered among them. The floor was a cream carpet and there were multiple guitars lent against the diagonally split wall, half of it white and half dark yellow, a teetering stack of what appeared to be music sheets next to them alongside a few guitar picks.

Ranboo descended the last flight of stairs onto the bottom floor of the huge house, aware that he was probably one of the last people to the table. 

He hesitated around the corner, then decided that he didn't have it in him to join them today.

He wished he was still in the city with his cat.

They had been fine.

Now he was here, no cat, and stuck with this new chaotic family.

He wasn't hungry anyway.

Ranboo returned to his room, locking the door behind him.

He had been surprised when he found the lock, clearly newly installed. Phil must be the type of guy who was "big on privacy". Ranboo had met a few of those, but usually they had secret keys hidden away because they didn't actually trust you. Plus Ranboo wasn't stupid, he'd noticed that his room was on the top floor, making it practically impossible for him to run. 

He heard footsteps outside on the stairs. Someone placed something down outside his room and then left.

Ranboo waited for a few minutes before unlocking his door.

There was a foil covered plate outside with a note attached.

_You don't have to come down to eat, I know it's probably all very overwhelming. Hope you like lasagna! - Phil_

He closed his door again, leaving the plate outside untouched.

He wasn't hungry anyway.

When Phil came up hours later, it was nearing midnight. Everyone had started retreating to their rooms, although many lights were still on.

He noticed the light in Ranboo's room was still on, although it wasn't the main one because it was dim (Phil assumed it was the fairy lights). If he listened carefully he could hear Ranboo humming quietly.

Phil sighed when he noticed the untouched plate outside.

Maybe integrating Ranboo into their community was going to be harder than he had originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am English and this story is set in America just cause it works out better, in the next few chapters people will be going to high school and because I'm English if I make mistakes pls just ignore that!! And thank you to everyone who commented explaining it to me... just so you Americans know, your education system is confusing to me lmao.
> 
> (Also if an age of a character in this book isn't their actual age, I know, I've changed it to fit my story line!!)
> 
> <3


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ranboo's first day with Phil...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The writers block I had writing this was unreal, so I am very unhappy with some parts but oh well... enjoy? Also thanks for all the comments on the last chapter, they're really helpful!

The next day Ranboo awoke with the sun. 

Force of habit after living on the streets for so long, it was just something he'd learned to do. Sleeping any longer never resulted in anything good.

No one else was awake yet from what he could hear, and he wondered if this was when the house was most peaceful.

He dressed for the day, slipping on sweatpants and an orange hoodie (sounded ugly but he actually liked the colour so he didn't care anyway) and then quietly cracking open the door to his bedroom.

Ranboo knew he needed to eat. 

So he'd decided that the best time to get food and well... stockpile, would be either in the night or now. Considering he'd accidentally fallen asleep at around 3am after listening to Tommy and Tubbo (whose room was right underneath his) argue about who was superior, Donkey Kong or Godzilla (despite both of them thinking Godzilla was better so they were basically arguing over nothing and it was very confusing to listen to), for hours, stockpiling in the night wasn't an option anymore, so it would have to be now.

It was Friday today, which meant that the other kids in the house should be going to school. Being as Phil hadn't mentioned anything about school to him yet, Ranboo assumed that he wouldn't joining them just yet. 

He passed the second landing and paused when he heard voices.

"Oi! Dream that was mine! Give it back!" Laughed George, followed by the intense sound of keyboard clicking.

He heard the faint sound of wheezing, like someone was laughing on a phone call.

"C'mon Gogy, lets- wait no behind you!" Said the american voice he had heard yesterday laughing about the spider in George's room. It was coming from the room Phil had told him was Sapnap's.

George squealed. "Sapnap! Sapnap help! He's killing me!"

"I'm coming George." There was a pause and then they started laughing again. "Ha! Stay away from Gogy!"

Followed by another wheeze that held a strong resemblance to a kettle and then a new voice (the one on the phone) laughed, "Sapnap! Sapnap c'mere!"

Sapnap then screeched and started laughing, "No! No! GEORGE HELP!"

Ranboo came to the conclusion that George and Sapnap were gaming with Dream and probably had been all night, as it was 5am and he doubted they would have gotten up that early just because they could.

He crept past their doors, not that they would have noticed if someone was outside (as they were so focused on their gaming), and continued on his way.

He passed Phil, Technoblade and Wilbur's doors. Thankfully they were all closed, and he assumed they were all still asleep, although he thought he heard movement in Technoblade's and froze. When there was no further sound, Ranboo snuck past and swiftly entered the kitchen with a sigh of relief.

_That had to be the furthest away the kitchen had ever been from his room in any foster home he'd ever been in._

Ranboo hadn't been in the kitchen yet, and it surprised him that it was actually nice-looking.

The cabinets were painted sage green, the island in the middle painted to match. The walls were charcoal grey and had a few wooden shelves attached with books and plants on, the green leaves of the plants hanging down over the edge. There was a large sink, like one of the ones you saw in movies set in English farmhouses. It was right in front of a window with more plants on and had a slightly rusty looking metal faucet (but Ranboo was fairly certain it was supposed to look like that). 

It was a nice kitchen.

Now where was the food that would give him calories but wouldn't be noticed if missing?

There was a fridge to his left, designed in a way that matched the kitchen with it's metal and it's oak counter tops and its sage green. Ranboo noticed it had multiple grade cards stuck to it, ranging from Cs and Ds to straight As.

He turned and saw a door to his right, it was oak like the counter tops and he wasn't quite sure how he'd missed it. 

Slowly, Ranboo opened the door, wincing when it creaked, the sound way too loud in the peaceful household.

Light spilled into the small room, illuminating shelves of food. 

_That's a lot of food._

He stepped inside, eyes slightly wide (never had he seen so much food in one house before).

Ranboo noticed a small package on the floor, tucked to the side but noticeable as his foot knocked against it. 

Clearly it had been left there for that exact reason.

He crouched down and was surprised to see a post-it note attached with a messy scrawl on it.

_Hey New Kid. You're probably looking for food right now (it's going to be so awkward if someone else finds this) and that's fine, most of us did the same when we arrived. I know this doesn't mean much and you won't believe me for a while but I promise Phil feeds us, there's no need to stockpile, but I know you will anyway. Anyway, I left you a small package of food for you to take because... just cause. Don't think we're friends now btw, I'm just not being an ass. And don't tell Tommy because he'll never let me hear the end of it and I will end you. - Purpled._

Ranboo smiled slightly, picking up the package and hearing food wrappers crinkle inside. 

"Oh."

Ranboo jumped out of his skin, whirling towards the voice and his body snapping into a defensive stance.

A teenager who he didn't know was stood in the doorway of the kitchen in the middle of rubbing their eyes sleepily, mouth slightly open in surprise at the sight of him. Ranboo vaguely recognised him from briefly glimpsing him yesterday. 

He had light brown hair and brown eyes, again he was shorter than Ranboo (although practically everyone was) and he was wearing black jeans and a white hoodie with the outline of a flame sewn onto the center of it. His nails were painted in black nail polish that was chipped and coming off.

"Don't mind me." They yawned. Texas accent. Sapnap maybe? Definitely the voice he'd heard gaming in Sapnap's room so it would make sense... but it would be embarrassing if it wasn't, so Ranboo wasn't going to say anything. "I'm just hunting for Phil's caffeine. He keeps hiding it from me, asshole." He muttered, walking past a frozen Ranboo and starting to rummage through the cupboards. He found what he was looking for, pulling out a bag from behind one of the plants on the wooden counter top, "Ah ha! Can't hide the caffeine from me."

The teenager started making himself a coffee and then turned to look at Ranboo (who was now stood outside the pantry clutching the wrapped package of food) leaning against the counter casually, brown hair flopping across his forehead messily. "So what you doing?"

Ranboo flushed red.

_It was very obvious what he was doing._

"Uh..."

The other teenager smiled and for some reason it made Ranboo feel slightly less embarrassed. "Nah you don't need to be embarrassed. I don't care. Purpled probably left that for you anyway, despite how much he denies it he does it every time someone new comes. Did it for me, did it for Quackity, did it for George, and now for you too. I'm Sapnap by the way."

"Uh... Ranboo..." Ranboo muttered, still feeling embarrassed at being caught.

"Cool." Sapnap yawned. "I'm fucking exhausted."

"Maybe if you hadn't been gaming all night..." Said another voice that Ranboo had heard before. 

"Fuck off Purpled." Sapnap said, chugging half his coffee and flipping off the new teenager stood in the doorway.

Purpled.

Ranboo now had a face to go with the name. 

He was taller than Sapnap, at least 6 foot. He had blond hair and blue eyes that almost had a purple tinge to them. _That couldn't be natural..._ He was wearing grey joggers and a violet long sleeved tee shirt. 

"Seriously dude, you kept me up half the night. Can't you and George game at normal hours like normal people? I have a math exam today and I can hardly keep my eyes open. If I fail then I'm blaming you." Purpled complained.

" _I have a math exam today._ " Sapnap mimicked in a high pitched voice. "Nerd."

"At least I'm not having to retake Phil's class. That's like the easiest class in school." Purpled mocked.

Sapnap gave him a look. "Not everyone can be as smart as you Purpled! That class is difficult and if Ranboo wasn't here I'd fucking burn you for that one."

_Burn? As in literally burn him or like verbally or something? He wasn't living with another crazy teenager with an addiction to fire... right?_

Ranboo had had some bad experiences with fire and teenagers in the past. The two generally didn't mix well.

Purpled grinned at Sapnap with a look that said, "I'd like to see you try."

"Phil says no fighting in the house." George yawned, pushing past Purpled and stealing Sapnap's coffee. "Plus Ranboo is here. So behave." He gave the two a hard glare and some unspoken communication seemed to pass between the three.

Sapnap screeched in rage as George drank the rest of his coffee. 

"Oi! That was mine!"

George shrugged. "I needed it more."

Ranboo would have to disagree as George looked more than awake while Sapnap looked like he was fighting to keep his eyes open.

Purpled scrunched his nose in disgust. "Ew, that's gross. His mouth was on that mug and there was probably spit in that coffee too."

Everyone in the room pulled a face of disgust. 

"Purpled you're disgusting. Please shut up. It's 6am and I don't have the energy for this right now." Another person had entered the room.

They were tall but Ranboo was still taller. They were buff too, with broad shoulders. Ranboo thought they looked like they could snap him in half without a second thought. They had brown eyes with a red tint ( _again these colours couldn't be natural, purple and now red?_ ) and dyed long pink hair that clearly hadn't been brushed yet, just loosely tied in a messy bun. They also looked half asleep.

Ranboo was starting to feel very uncomfortable at this point, the kitchen starting to become much too crowded for his liking (despite the fact that it was not crowded by normal standards by any means).

"Techno I'm not the one who just drank someone else's coffee." Purpled said with a raised eyebrow.

"Whatever." Techno grumbled, his voice sleepy and so low it was basically just a sound.

His voice was deeper than Ranboo's, and that was saying something.

"Er... I... bye?" Ranboo said as people started having their own conversations.

He edged out of the room, Techno and Purpled acknowledging his exit while George and Sapnap argued over toast in the background.

It seemed like the inhabitants of the house were starting to wake up now. On the first floor, Wilbur's alarm was going off again and again, followed by a groan and then a small crashing sound (probably an alarm clock being knocked over), and then silence. Technoblade's bedroom door was closed as was Phil's, although Ranboo could hear Phil moving around if he listened carefully and he knew Technoblade was in the kitchen, having just met him. On the second floor the rooms were all empty (the people whom they belonged to downstairs in the kitchen). On the third floor, Tommy and Tubbo's door was open and Ranboo could see a lump under red covers that signified that someone was still asleep while the other one (Ranboo didn't know which) was banging on the bathroom door screeching at someone to hurry up, their brown hair sticking up in all directions. Ranboo heard a feminine voice with a soft German accent responding and telling them that she'd be faster if they left her alone because they were stressing her out. Quackity's door was still shut.

Ranboo managed to pass without further interactions, the teen banging on the door too focused to notice him slipping past with his food.

He breathed out a sigh of relief when he slipped back into his room, the door closing with a satisfying click behind him.

That had to be the most nerve racking stockpiling experience he'd ever had. And that was saying something as Ranboo had lived in seven homes and two group homes, all of which had better security on where they kept their food than Phil did. Ranboo remembered one house had even had an alarm on the fridge and cupboards that only they knew the code to disable the horrible beeping sound. It had only taken Ranboo two days to figure it out, after that taking small bits of food from the cupboards every now and then had been easy, especially as it had been the same code to disable all of them.

Ranboo opened the package, almost surprised to find that Purpled had been genuine when multiple energy bars, a few bags of crisps, and multiple other food items tumbled onto his made bed, along with a bottle of water.

_Huh._

He was hungry. He hadn't eaten in over twenty four hours now...

Ranboo opened one of the protein bars.

It was just one anyway.

A few hours later and the house was quickly emptying, the sounds of teenagers who were either panicked because they were running late or moaning that they had to go to school in the first place floating up to the top of the house where Ranboo sat at the top of the stairs listening and doodling in his sketchpad.

"Tommy come on we'll miss the bus!"

"Sapnap said he'd drive us-"

"Sapnap just left without us! The bus leaves in two minutes!"

"Well maybe if you learned how to drive-"

"Why don't you learn!"

"PHIL! PHIL HAVE YOU SEEN MY GUITAR! I CAN'T LEAVE WITHOUT IT I HAVE BAND PRACTISE TODA-"

"Come on Quackity, we need to go."

"Aye man! Let me sleep!"

That was a new voice, Ranboo hadn't heard that one before. 

"Quackity! Come. On. Get out of bed!" He heard George say, accompanied by a loud thud and then silence.

Then someone started yelling angrily in Spanish that was way too fast for Ranboo to even try to understand and George squealed, escaping from the room if the loud thuds of someone being chased down the stairs were any indication. 

"I'm sorry Quackity! I'm sorry. It's just that we have a History- NO! PUT THE FRYING PAN DOWN!"

Very slowly, the house quietened down until it was completely silent, the front door finally swinging closed with a bang behind Quackity as he chased George out of the house. 

Ranboo moved to his window and watched as George attempted to hide behind a tall teen in a dark green hoodie who was waiting at the end of the driveway, instead getting ragged around and pushed back towards someone who he assumed was Quackity who had a beanie on their head and a frying pan in his hands...

He watched as Quackity decided that actually he was going to hit George with the pan, George yelling and turning to the shorter boy as the other teen collapsed in a fit of laughter. 

There was a quiet knock on the door frame and Ranboo turned to see Phil stood there watching him.

"Can I come in?"

Ranboo nodded.

"Morning. Did you sleep okay?" Phil asked.

Ranboo shrugged.

Phil smiled slightly, as if he somehow knew what Ranboo wasn't saying. "Tommy was the same for a while."

Ranboo still didn't respond, staying stood by the window.

"Anything you want to do today? I work at the high school that all the boys attend so I won't be free all the time but I took the day off today in case you wanted to do something or you needed me." Phil explained.

Ranboo was surprised. None of his previous foster parents had ever done anything like that before, always acting like he was a burden rather than someone they would take time out of their own days to make time for.

"You didn't have to do that." Ranboo muttered quietly, absentmindedly picking at the skin around his nails nervously, his actual nails already bitten down to the beds.

"I did, what sort of guy would I be if I just left you in this entirely new place all by yourself?" 

Ranboo shrugged. "Dunno."

Phil noticed the open sketchbook on Ranboo's bed.

Ranboo followed his line of sight and tensed slightly.

He hadn't meant to leave that there... 

"Can I look?" Phil asked.

Ranboo shrugged again so Phil stepped towards it and lifted it gently. Some small part of Ranboo thought this might be a trick and Phil might break it so he was surprised when Phil said, sounding genuinely impressed, "You drew these?"

Ranboo nodded.

"Wow. These are really good Ranboo. They're amazing actually."

Ranboo flushed bright red.

No one had ever praised him for his art before, mainly because he had never shown anyone.

"Thanks." He muttered shyly.

Phil stopped on a drawing of a boy.

He was falling through water, his limbs stretching towards the surface desperately. The water looked like it was pressing in around him - drowning him.

He held his breath as Phil studied it, hoping he didn't ask for the story behind it. 

"Do you think you'd be interested in taking an art class maybe?" Was all Phil asked, handing Ranboo back his art and pretending not to notice the almost desperate way the teen grabbed for it, hugging the sketchpad to his chest protectively.

Ranboo's eyes lit up at the idea of being able to do an art class, "Is that a thing?"

"Yeah, not a very popular class but it still exists at-"

"That would be amazing!" Ranboo cut him off, causing Phil to smile at his childlike excitement.

Phil had found something Ranboo was passionate about, now he needed to run with it.

"We could go and get you some art supplies if you like? There's a mall thirty minutes away, there should be a store there where we could find you some stuff." Phil suggested slightly cautiously, not wanted to push it too far and scare the boy away.

"Really?" Ranboo grinned, not even second guessing why Phil would want to buy him things for once.

"Yeah mate, if we leave now we could probably grab lunch afterwards too."

"Sounds good." Ranboo replied.

Phil left him to get ready and half an hour later they were sat in awkward silence in Phil's car, about to leave.

Ranboo was fiddling with the radio stations nervously, flicking between the stations and occasionally pausing on some only to decide he didn't like the music and to switch it again. It was slightly annoying and anyone else would have snapped at the boy about it already, but Techno did the same thing, so Phil didn't mind. He was used to it. Plus if he got annoyed at Ranboo now the boy would never open up about anything ever again. 

Finally Ranboo settled on a radio station that Phil had never heard of (hadn't even known it existed and had now idea how the boy found it) that was playing Lemon Demon (according to the small screen that read _"Now Playing: Touch-Tone Telephone by Lemon Demon"_ ).

The teenager was finally content with what music was playing, letting his hands fall away from the button that changed which station was playing.

Phil noticed how much the music seemed to calm Ranboo's nerves.

_Note to self: Ranboo likes Lemon Demon._

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to get?" Phil asked, concentrating on the road but feeling Ranboo's attention shift from the window to his face.

Ranboo shrugged, "I don't know. I've never had the chance to do art with anything other than a pencil and paper. Art supplies aren't cheap."

Phil could feel the boy's anxiety return with those words as it hit him like a freight train, Ranboo's emotions flooding his mind and body and almost making him lose concentration on the road.

He took a deep breath, concentrating on trying to flow positive emotions into Ranboo.

It worked slightly, enough to make Ranboo stop bouncing his leg nervously, but not as much as it should have.

_If there had been any previous doubt about whether Ranboo was one of them, there wasn't anymore._

_Normal people couldn't resist Phil's influence without training, and even then it was easy to get past their defenses._

The pair spent the rest of the day at the mall, Ranboo clearly on edge around so many people and hunching his shoulders as he followed behind Phil, who made sure to keep the conversation going by distracting Ranboo from his nerves by asking about his favourite artists. 

Ranboo had never had anyone ask him about something he was passionate about before and so rambled on and on, stumbling over his words and stopping every so often muttering apologies about being annoying, hunching even more as if he expected Phil's next words to be cutting. The sixth time he had done this Phil had looked him in the eyes and said forcefully with a comforting smile, "Ranboo. I want to hear what you have to say, it's really interesting. I promise I'm not going to get mad at you. What were you saying about the different art styles you've tried?"

And that was all it took for Ranboo to start talking again. 

When the pair returned back to the house, Ranboo had a bag full of art supplies and Phil had sneakily bought the boy a pair of shoes he had been eyeing wistfully when they were grabbing him some extra clothes, mainly because Phil insisted he need to be able to choose his own despite the ones Puffy had bought him being perfectly fine. 

Ranboo spluttered when Phil handed them to him, his mouth falling open in surprise when he opened the box and saw the sneakers lying inside.

"Phil... you... I- you didn't have to... thank you so much." Ranboo grinned, unable to hide his happy smile.

Without realising, Ranboo had grown to like Phil, finding the man's company surprisingly relaxing and his conversations interesting. He felt like he could let his guard down around the man, a feeling that he hadn't felt since well... forever... or at least as long as he could remember.

"Phil? Is that you?" Called a voice as soon as the two entered the house, followed by a brown haired boy rushing out of the living room.

Ranboo jumped in surprise, not having realised how long they had been and that most of the kids were now back from school.

"Oh it is, Phil come quick." The teen breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the man.

Something in his tone clearly made Phil worried because the man immediately rushed over to him (Ranboo following awkwardly behind, curious as to what was happening). "What's wrong Tubbo? What happened?"

"Tubbo I told you not to tell him." Someone hissed in annoyance.

They entered the room to find two very beat up boys sat on the couch, one with dirty-blonde hair cut in a medium length, messy mullet and sat with his arms crossed in annoyance as George tried to force him to hold a cold ice pack to his eye (eventually doing it for him when he refused) and the other glaring at Tubbo in annoyance, his dyed blue hair much shorter than the blonde's hair style and wearing a bright blue hoodie. Purpled was sat on a beanbag with his head in his hands next to another new boy Ranboo didn't know with brown hair and eyes.

"Oh for fucks sake." Ranboo heard Phil mutter under his breath. "I take one day off work..."

When no one spoke, Phil sighed and asked, "So is anyone going to tell me what happened?" Again no one said anything. "Connor?" Phil made eye contact with the boy with blue hair. Ranboo noticed that the blue hoodie he was wearing was actually a sonic hoodie. "No? Okay. Dream what about you?" Phil was now looking at the boy who was trying to get George to stop holding the ice pack near his face, which was met with a glare from George and Dream huffing in frustration before giving up and letting George baby him. Still no one replied. "Tubbo?" 

Tubbo shifted uncomfortably as the full intensity of Phil's Dad voice was directed at him.

Ranboo watched as Dream made eye contact with the boy and slowly drew a finger across his throat when Phil's back was turned, the universal sign for threatening to end someone if they snitched. Tubbo gulped and just shrugged. 

"I don't know what happened." Tubbo muttered, clearly lying.

Phil sighed, mumbling something about how kids were going to be the death of him.

"Alright, since clearly no one wants to tell me what happened and you're both-"

There was a loud, high-pitched scream upstairs followed by a crash and then a British child swearing.

"WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK!"

Another high pitched scream and another crash. Then that same voice shouted, "PHIL! PHIIIIIL!!"

Phil sighed again and then hurried out of the room, clearly more worried about whatever was happening upstairs than the two boys on the couch.

That unfortunately left Ranboo in a rather awkward situation.

Connor immediately laid into the short boy next to Ranboo the moment Phil was gone. "Tubbo! What the fuck dude? We told you not to call Phil in! It was nothing serious... just some dicks at school. We're not dying! George could have fixed us up in a few minutes and he never would have known-"

"Hey Ranboo!" Purpled suddenly cut in loudly, causing everyone's eyes to snap to the tall boy. Connor looked surprised, as if he somehow hadn't noticed him. "I don't think you've met these guys before right?"

"Uh... I've met George before..." He said nervously, hating the feel of everyone's eyes on him.

"Well I'm Connor and that idiot is Tubbo," Connor said, gesturing towards Tubbo, who flinched slightly, making Ranboo feel bad for him.

"Lay off Tubbo man, he was just worried about us." Dream muttered, jabbing Connor in the ribs and making him hiss in pain. "I'm Dream by the way."

"Er, hi."

"This is Fundy, he's usually a lot more talkative." Purpled said, introducing the boy next to him when he didn't introduce himself, a look of deep concentration on his face.

"It's err... nice to meet you guys." Ranboo smiled anxiously, hunching in on himself when people still didn't break eye contact with him.

He was starting to get a headache. It felt like someone was prodding his brain with a stick over and over again.

"PHI- DAD FUCKING KILL IT!" Echoed down the stairs.

Connor grinned, "I think Tommy found the spider guys."

George shuddered violently, face going pale.

Purpled rolled his eyes, "Clearly. Where are you guys even finding spiders that big?"

"They aren't _that_ big." Dream grinned. 

"Say that again when you climb into bed and find one hiding under your pillow." George hissed, smacking the boy's head. "That gave me a heart attack and I'm still mad about it, just so you guys know."

"Sorry George, it was Sapnap's idea-"

"Trust me, I already know that."

"I can help you get him back for it."

"I don't need your help Dream." George grinned evilly.

At that moment there was yet another yell, this one coming from almost directly above them.

"WHAT THE FUCK? WHICH MOTHERFUCK-" There was a pause and then, "MY HAIR IS FUCKING NEON GREEN!" 

Everyone in the rooms mouth fell open as George collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"Dude... Sapnap's gonna to murder you..." Connor grinned.

"I personally think green hair suits him, caught a glimpse of it as he made a run for his bedroom." Said another person, stepping into the room. Ranboo recognised him as the teen with the British accent who had winked at him yesterday. "Hey Ranboo, I'm Wilbur by the way. Also George, Sapnap is going to absolutely slaughter you when he finds out you were the one who put green hair dye in his shampoo."

"How dumb do you have to be to not notice green hair dye in your shampoo?" Fundy muttered, contributing to the conversation for the first time, his eyes closed and his face still concentrated. Ranboo wondered what the hell he was doing.

His head gave a particularly painful throb and he winced.

"Dumb." Tubbo smirked. "That's why the only person it would ever work on is Sapnap."

Everyone collapsed into laughter, apart from Ranboo who was just confused and so very far out of his comfort zone that he might as well be swimming in the middle of an ocean surrounded by sharks. 

The four older teens (Connor, George, Wilbur and Dream) plus Purpled started having a conversation about something that happened at school, which Ranboo had no chance of understanding as they were talking about people who he didn't know. Fundy was still sat very still, eyes still closed and brow furrowed. 

Tubbo turned to him. "What's in the bag Big Man?"

Ranboo tightened his grip on the plastic bag. If Tubbo noticed, he didn't comment on it.

"Err, art stuff."

Tubbo's eyes brightened, "You like art?"

Ranboo nodded his head, watching how Tubbo's eyes lit up.

"Me too! Well technically it's not art... or maybe it is? I'm not sure, is music art?" Tubbo rambled.

Ranboo shrugged, "I guess so."

Tubbo took that as permission to ramble even more about ukuleles and music.

"Come see my ukuleles! I might even let you play one! Can you play instruments?" 

Ranboo shook his head, opting not to mention that he used to be able to plat the piano... that was ages ago. He probably couldn't anymore.

The pair left the room, tall teenager following the shorter one with his bag of art supplies held tightly in his hands. 

As soon as they were gone, conversation stopped and they all turned to look at Fundy, who finally opened his eyes and his face of concentration dropped into one of confusion.

"So?" Purpled prompted when Fundy didn't say anything.

"I don't know." Fundy frowned.

That was surprising.

"You don't know what his power is?" George said incredulously.

Fundy shook his head. "It's like it's behind some sort of veil... like he's muted it. I couldn't get past the veil no matter how hard I tried."

"So he's hidden his abilities from himself." Wilbur muttered and Fundy nodded. "Interesting."

"He must have insane amounts of control to be able to do that." Dream said, clearly thinking about how bad he had been at controlling his own powers all his life.

He winced as George moved from healing his eye to healing his side, his hands hovering over his rib cage and emitting an ever so slight white light.

Fundy nodded, "Poor guy. His head probably hurts from me trying to break past his defenses..." 

"Did you at least get a power level read on him?" Connor asked.

"At least a three bar, probably higher if his mental defenses and the way he's hidden his powers from himself are anything to go by."

"Lets hope he's a three bar, anything higher than that..." There was a silence in the room. "We don't want another Dream or Sapnap incident." George voiced what they were all thinking.

Fundy had come up with a system for ranking everyone's power. The best way to describe it was probably like bars of signal like you'd get on a phone. Level one was one bar, level two was two bar, level three was three bar and so on. The highest was level six, the most powerful. Fundy and Dream were currently the only level sixes in the community, Dream with his ability to hop between different realities and twist your own reality to his will, and Fundy able to see, control and temporarily steal others powers. Technoblade was high level five, almost a level six, his powers basically just being immortal and having heightened senses, he was rather salty about not being included in the bar six category but Fundy insisted that despite the fact he was definitely the best fighter, his powers weren't bar six. Most of the community was either level four or below anyway, anything above that usually had eventful power awakening moments that often resulted in Phil almost having multiple heart attacks purely from stress. 

"His power feels unfamiliar though. It's definitely not something we've encountered before which means we can cross a lot of abilities he doesn't have off of the list." Fundy tried comforting the worried teens. 

"We should probably tell Phil..." Purpled muttered, getting nods of agreement from everyone else in the room.

George had now moved onto healing Connor, who was slumped on the couch as George lifted his hoodie and grimaced at the large purple bruise forming there. George's hands started glowing again as he held them over Connor's injuries. 

Meanwhile, Ranboo was being introduced to all of Tubbo's ukuleles (each of them apparently had a name) and shown the songs Tubbo had been working on. 

And surprisingly, as he sat there with the brown haired teen wearing mismatched socks with his pink shirt buttoned up wrong listening to one of the songs he had written, all thoughts of running had temporarily left his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the end of the chapters where there's hints about a characters powers, I'll do this every time (unless it's Ranboo obviously because that would just ruin it):
> 
> George:  
> Level 2  
> Healer
> 
> Phil:  
> Level 3  
> Empath 
> 
> Purpled:  
> Level 4  
> Water Manipulator  
> Mild healing abilities
> 
> Sapnap:  
> Level 5  
> Fire Manipulator  
> Mild light manipulation abilities
> 
> Technoblade:  
> Level 5  
> Immortality  
> Heightened senses
> 
> Dream:  
> Level 6  
> Reality Manipulator 
> 
> Fundy:  
> Level 6  
> Ability Manipulator


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ranboo attends a new high school for the first time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the supportive comments on the last chapter! They really helped motivate me.
> 
> Possible TW: mention of dead naming

Ranboo spent the weekend hiding out in his room by himself, occasionally emerging to get food. He still hadn't built up the courage to eat with everyone else yet and he still hadn't met everyone who lived in the house. Even more surprisingly, Phil hadn't forced him to spend time with him or anyone else, like some foster parents he'd had in the past. Ranboo wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

From the sound of it, the house was not only home to the people who lived there, but also their friends. Ranboo had lost count of the amount of people he had heard flitting around the house, shouting at video games and arguing over who got to sit where at the table... all these new voices... it didn't exactly make him want to emerge. 

Running was seeming more and more appealing the more time he spent here.

Yes Phil was nice, as was Tubbo... but Ranboo was lonely, and he missed his cat.

He missed his cat and he missed his little doorstep that he had claimed as his own and he missed the city.

So Ranboo isolated himself all weekend, secretly planning a halfhearted escape and ignoring the fact that his heart wasn't fully in it, meaning it likely wouldn't be successful. He knew that from past experiences.

On Sunday evening, Phil came up to see him.

Ranboo heard footsteps outside of his room while he was sat on one of the wooden beams in the ceiling (don't ask, it was strangely comfortable up there and it was fun) practising with the charcoals that Phil had bought him. They were a difficult medium to work with (or at least in Ranboo's opinion) and so far he wasn't very good at it, his hands covered in black smudges and the cat he was trying to draw mediocre at best. 

He knew it was Phil from how heavy the footsteps were and the fact that he was one of the only people who would bother to come see him considering the fact that Ranboo hadn't exactly been the epitome of friendly since arriving - the other kids probably hated him for being so reclusive. 

To give Phil credit, when he had entered the room (only after Ranboo had said he could come in) he hadn't been surprised to see Ranboo hanging out in the rafters - like somehow this was a normal, everyday occurrence. He had merely smiled and asked Ranboo to come down so they could talk.

"How would you feel about starting high school?" Phil had asked, watching for Ranboo's reaction.

Ranboo felt many thing about starting high school again, none of which he was going to tell the man (unknowing that Phil could tell what he was feeling anyway).

"Err I guess it would be good." Ranboo had muttered, rubbing his charcoal covered hands together nervously. 

"You'll most likely be a junior like Tubbo, Tommy and Purpled, so you'll know people before you arrive."

Ranboo frowned, "I thought Tubbo and Purpled are seventeen? How are they in the same year as Tommy?"

"They have birthday's at an odd time of year, plus Tubbo is dyslexic so he would have been kept back a year anyway. The Principle and his English teacher wouldn't be convinced otherwise." Phil seemed annoyed by that and Ranboo sensed some underlying frustrations with the pair about that particular topic. 

"Oh." Ranboo replied. He guessed that made sense.

He already knew he would probably have to repeat a year after dropping out of school for a few months... you couldn't exactly attend school while living on the streets and hiding from the foster system. He had sort of been expecting to have to repeat sophomore year (which would suck), so Phil telling him he'd most likely be a junior didn't seem as awful as Phil had probably expected him to feel.

So that was how Ranboo found himself stood outside of the Principle's office in the halls of an empty school (everyone was in class) with Phil stood next to him, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the door to open.

Ranboo shuffled his feet nervously, shoulders hunched and staring at the sneakers that Phil had bought him. One was black, one was white and Ranboo had replaced the boring white laces with one red and one green lace. It was definitely a unique look but Ranboo liked it. He pulled the sleeves of his black hoodie over his hands, giving himself sweater paws as he waited, his backpack slung over his shoulder by one strap.

Phil could sense Ranboo's nerves and again tried calming him using his empath powers. Again it only worked slightly.

 _He must be at least a level four to be able to resist that well with no prior training,_ Phil thought to himself.

Finally, the door to the office swung open, revealing a tall man wearing a suit that Ranboo thought looked like a cat had threw up on, and a tall teenager wearing large platform boots, fishnet tights, and a black skirt that had a grey tee shirt with some band Ranboo didn't know tucked into it, sulking on one of the chairs inside with their arms crossed.

Phil looked surprised to see the teenager, obviously having only expected to see the man with the cat sick suit.

"Eret? What are you doing here?"

The teenager's head snapped up, their brown fluffy hair flopping into their face.

"Hey Mr Watson. My psychology teacher had an issue with my clothes and sent me here after being extremely rude about my pronouns. Sir is refusing to believe me and is claiming that somehow my clothes break dress code despite the fact that nothing about my outfit does, I checked before hand, and is currently trying to force me to change." The teenager, Eret, explained with a shit eating grin when he saw how Phil's face darkened in annoyance as he turned to the headmaster.

"Mr Williams. I believe we've had previous conversations about respecting Eret's preferred pronouns and dress coding them for wearing clothes that you believe they shouldn't be wearing when there is nothing wrong with Eret's clothing. In fact I believe I saw a girl earlier wearing a similar outfit, are you going to dress code her too? Or is it just Eret who gets dress coded for wearing what he wants to wear?" 

Ranboo was impressed to say the least. The Principle was clearly intimidated by Phil, and to be completely honest, Ranboo would have been too if he was in his position.

Eret had a smug smile on his face and his legs and arms were crossed as they lent back in their chair. 

"Mr Watson, as you pointed out, we've had these conversations previously and I don't think this is a conversation we should be having in front of students." Mr Williams replied, his face pinched in annoyance.

Ranboo decided he really didn't like him. He gave off bad vibes.

"Of course Mr Williams." Phil said tightly, clearly annoyed. "In the meantime, if we could start the meeting we had scheduled for now with you and Sam soon as I have a class to teach in," He checked his watch. "Exactly 37 minutes from now."

Mr Williams nodded, his expression still sour, "Eret. You can return to class."

Eret stood from his seat and Ranboo found out that when they were wearing the boots, they were actually taller than he was.

"Thanks Mr Watson. I'll probably see you around Ranboo. Nice meeting you!" And then Eret was striding confidently out of the office, pale blue painted nails pushing his hair out of his face. Ranboo noticed he was wearing eyeliner as he passed.

He liked Eret. Eret seemed cool.

He didn't see the way Eret seemingly randomly smiled as he turned the corner, catching a stray thought from the tall teenager as he headed back to class. 

" _Eret is bad ass._ "

When he reentered his psychology classroom he ignored the annoyed look his teacher sent him and the extremely homophobic thoughts radiating off of her and headed straight to the table at the back, where Sapnap and Niki and some random kid (who really didn't like them but had no where else to sit) sat. 

He slid back into his seat next to Sapnap, who gave him a curious look.

"What happened?"

"Phil saved me from Mr William's evil clutches." Eret grinned, then started copying notes of the stuff he'd missed from Niki, ignoring Sapnap's complaining that his notes were just as good. Everyone knew that was a lie, Sapnap barely paid attention in almost all of his classes. It was a miracle he was somehow still passing.

Meanwhile, back in the Principle's office, Phil had managed to convince the stubborn man to let Ranboo take his placement test today after talking to Sam, the school's guidance councilor. 

The pair left his office to head over to Sam's, Phil muttering under his breath, clearly frustrated after interacting with the man.

"Sorry about him Ranboo, I swear he's the most miserable sod I've ever met. Don't tell anyone I said that by the way." Phil apologised. "I promise Sam is so much better."

Ranboo smiled slightly as he listened to Phil, hoping that he was right.

They stopped outside of a door with "Sam - Guidance Councillor" written on a small piece of paper stuck to the door. Someone had crossed out "Sam" with a slightly messy line and corrected it to "Awe **sam** dude!"

Phil knocked and was answered by someone calling "Come in!"

Phil opened the door and Ranboo was surprised at how different the office was to the Principle's. 

For starters, despite being smaller it felt much bigger because the blinds were pulled up and sunlight was pouring into the room. Secondly, the plastic chairs that had been pushed against the wall of the Principle's office had been replaced with a small couch and a spare cushioned chair in the corner of the room. Finally, the man sat behind the desk was much younger, much much more friendly-looking, and wearing jeans and a white hoodie rather than a cat sick suit.

"Hey Phil, Ranboo. How are you today?" He grinned.

"Alright." Ranboo muttered, slightly distrusting of someone so friendly. Wasn't he too young to be a guidance councilor?

"I'm assuming Dream spent the night at yours by the way Phil? He didn't come home last night." Sam asked as the two entered the room, sitting down on the couch. 

"Yeah, he crashed in Sapnap's room with the boys, pretty sure they stayed up all Saturday night practising." 

Ranboo was confused. Did Dream live with Sam? Was Sam Dream's dad? He must be just really young looking if he was Dream's dad...

Phil sensed Ranboo's confusion and explained.

"Dream lives with Sam and Puffy, so do Connor and some of the other boys you haven't met yet. Sam's 24 and Puffy's 22 so technically they're the boy's legal guardians but-"

Ranboo frowned and interrupted, "Puffy? As in the Puffy that found me?"

Phil and Sam exchanged a look before Phil nodded.

"Oh." Ranboo said, his mind whirring as his confused brain tried to figure it out. "Cool. Are you two like... um..."

Sam smiled and shook his head, "No. Just friends who live together."

"Oh." Ranboo said again, feeling slightly awkward. "Okay."

They then moved onto the topic of what subjects Ranboo might be interested in.

He took the placement test and while Sam was calculating his score and matching classes, Ranboo was bouncing his leg nervously, Phil sat next to him attempting to once again flow calm energy into the boy. 

"Looks like you're a smart kid Ranboo." Sam smiled, looking away from his computer. "You'll be able to catch up just fine if you put the effort in, for now I'm putting you in the same Math class as Tommy and Tubbo, if you do well though you might get moved up to the same class as Purpled. Art class is fine, you don't need a grade for that, so is Psychology, in fact your science grade was amazing, if there was a higher class you could be in then I'd put you in it, there's only one psychology class though. History is good, English you're a bit behind on but you should catch up on that easily, I've put you in Ponk's class, he's a friend of ours and will understand your situation much better than our other English teachers, Tubbo is also in that class this year, he was recently moved so you'll both be in the same boat. Plus you're automatically in Phil's class already. That sound good?"

Ranboo nodded, relieved that he'd managed to obtain a score that meant he could stay in junior year.

He wondered what Phil's class was and how he was automatically in it. He supposed he would find out later, as according to his timetable it was his last class of the day.

The bell rang, signalling the end of classes and suddenly the halls were filled with the sounds of teenagers jostling each other around and pushing through the crowd.

Phil stood up, "I've got to go now, but I told Tubbo to be here to show you-"

His words were cut off by the boy he had just been talking about tumbling into the room. Brown hair messy, bag almost falling off of his back, and almost decking himself on his own untied shoelace.

"So-sorry I'm... late. Got caught up with Tommy..." Tubbo gasped, breathing heavily and clearly having run from wherever he'd been. 

"Usually people knock Tubbo." Phil said, his lips quirking into a grin.

Tubbo was bent over, hands on his knees, "It's chaos out there, If I stopped to knock I would have been swept away."

Sam laughed.

"Right, Tubbo will be helping you find your classes for today and will be helping answer any questions you have. If you need anything then come see me, alright Ranboo?" 

Ranboo nodded, the calmness he had been feeling vanishing with Phil. 

"We have Math now!" Tubbo chimed, "We need to go or we'll be late and Mrs doesn't like it when we're late. She'll give us extra math homework." Tubbo shuddered dramatically and Ranboo smiled. "Bye Sam!"

Tubbo hurried out of the room into the rapidly emptying corridor and Ranboo followed in a rush, not wanting to be left behind. Imagine if he got lost and had to enter the Math classroom late by himself... that would be the worst.

He missed the way the door seemingly closed itself behind them once they were gone, Sam's eyes glued to his book as the door swung shut, clicking into place satisfyingly.

The pair hurried through the corridors, passing lockers and ambling teens who were delaying getting to their next classes.

Despite Ranboo's long legs, Tubbo was somehow managing to keep up, even a step ahead of the taller teen and flitting through the diminishing crowd easily due to his size, Ranboo having to weave and apologise every time he accidentally bumped into someone while trying to keep up with the boy.

They reached the classroom just before the bell rang, Tubbo bursting through the door and announcing loudly to the entire class, "We're not late! We're not late!"

Which was met with a fond glare from a black haired woman at the front of the classroom.

"I can see that Tubbo. If you and Ranboo could take your seats _quietly_ please." She said in an amused voice.

Ranboo got "strict but nice" teacher vibes from her.

Tubbo grinned and led Ranboo to the back of the class where a blond haired boy with electric blue eyes and wearing a red hoodie was annoying the girl sat directly in front of him, talking to her and trying to get her to turn around when she clearly didn't want to talk to him.

"Tommy! This is Ranboo!" Tubbo said, taking his usual seat next to the boy.

That left one open seat next to him for Ranboo, which he slipped into quietly and pulled out a pen to start taking notes as the Math professor started talking.

"Hey Big Man!" Tubbo hissed, poking Tommy in the ribs when he ignored them and continued trying to get the girl to talk to him. "Leave Grace alone, she's not going to talk to you if you annoy her forever."

Tommy huffed and turned to Tubbo. "Tubbo- oh, hey Ranboo!"

"Hi." Ranboo muttered, trying to concentrate on what the teacher was saying, scribbling down notes.

"You good at maths?" Tommy asked, watching Ranboo's pen fly across the page.

Ranboo shrugged, "I guess."

Tubbo sighed and poked Tommy again, causing him to hiss in pain and wack Tubbo with his math book. "Do your own work you lazy dickhead."

"Oi! You say that as if you haven't been copying my English homework for the past two years!"

"Yet I still failed and got held back a year so what does that say about you?" Tubbo countered, making Ranboo's lips twitch as he listened to them whisper jibes at each other.

The pair basically then bickered all lesson, panicking and copying all of Ranboo's answers in the last five minutes of class when the teacher announced that she wanted to check everyone's work after class.

Next Ranboo had art, and Tubbo walked him there with Tommy before announcing that neither of them had that class, Tubbo having music class now and Tommy having Geography.

"Have fun though! I'll meet you after class for lunch?" Tubbo called before disappearing with Tommy, leaving an extremely nervous Ranboo hovering in the entrance of the classroom. 

Ranboo didn't get time to ask where they were meeting for lunch and hoped that Tubbo meant meet here...

"Oh. It's Ranboo right?" Asked an unfamiliar voice softly from behind him.

Ranboo turned and saw the girl from a few days ago. The one who had been writing music or something at Phil's table.

"Errr, yeah." Ranboo answered nervously. "Hi."

Her face split into a wide grin. "Hi! I'm Niki, it's great to meet you. Did you take art too then?"

Ranboo nodded.

Niki had pale pink hair, the pink dye in it slowly fading to blonde. She had blue eyes that looked even more blue because of the chunky knitted, pastel blue sweater she was wearing. She was much smaller than him (the oversized sweater making her seem even smaller) and Ranboo had to look down to make eye contact with her.

"Awesome, I can introduce you to the teacher if you like? He prefers it if we call him Bad rather than Mr. Halo, just so you know. Also this class is mostly Seniors so you might actually be the only junior now Hannah dropped out... wait no, Fundy is a junior too. I forget sometimes." Niki said in her gentle voice. There was something about it that was convincing, even though he'd only just met her properly for the first time.

"Sure, okay." Ranboo tried smiling, pushing his nerves away.

Niki led him into a classroom with a total of seven other people in. Three of the seven were sat around a table already working on art, one of the seven was Fundy (who Ranboo had met the other day), another two were Eret and a boy he didn't know emerging from what he assumed was the store cupboard and holding a large canvas between them, and the seventh was a man sat at his desk on his phone texting someone as quiet music played in the room.

"Bad!" Niki said as she entered the classroom, Ranboo following behind.

The man looked up from his phone, eyes locking with Ranboo's as Fundy, Eret (and a boy he didn't know with black hair wearing a shark hoodie) stopped their conversation and turned towards Niki's voice automatically. "Bad this is Ranboo! Ranboo this is Bad, he's the art teacher."

Mr Halo, or Bad as Niki said he preferred being called, was tall, maybe even taller than Ranboo. He had brown hair and wore glasses that reflected the light in the room so Ranboo couldn't see his eyes. He was wearing jeans and a light blue hoodie with the words "Skeppy says muffins" printed on with a few emoji muffins surrounding it.

"Hey Ranboo, Phil told me about your art, he said it was really good." Bad said with a smile. "Do you mind if I look? It's perfectly fine if the answer is no, or if you don't have it on you."

Did everyone know each other in this place? The town wasn't _that_ small...

"Bad where are the oil paints?" Niki called from where she had vanished into the store cupboard after introducing the two.

"Top shelf on the left." Bad replied.

There was a small pause, then a crash, and then Niki called, "I need someone tall!"

Eret laughed and stood, long legs striding towards the store cupboard and disappearing inside, emerging a few seconds later with a box of oil paints and Niki following behind looking mildly embarrassed as she was now covered in powdered water colours. 

"Errr... Bad... do you think I could maybe go use the gym bathroom?" Niki asked sheepishly. 

Bad sighed, hiding his smile by ducking his head as he reached into his desk draw, bringing out a pre-written pass. _Was this a frequent occurrence?_

"Do you have spare clothes or do I need to message Skeppy to grab some for you?" Bad asked.

_Clearly this happened often._

"No I have spare in my locker." Niki grinned, taking the pass and bounding out of the room, leaving little puffs of colourful powder behind her.

While this had been happening, Ranboo had reached into his bag and taken out his sketchbook and was now holding it awkwardly, waiting for Bad to ask for it.

"What was I saying? Oh yeah, art." Bad looked at Ranboo again and saw him holding his sketchbook nervously. "Oh! Thank you."

Ranboo passed it to him, fidgeting nervously as the man flicked through his drawings, pausing every so often before making a satisfied noise and moving on. Finally, Bad paused on his latest drawing, the one he had attempted to do using charcoals. Ranboo hated it, he thought it was awful and his worst drawing yet. It seemed like Bad disagreed.

"Oh wow. Oh wow. This is amazing Ranboo. Was this your first time using charcoals?" The man asked, leaning closer to look at the details of the cat.

"Uh, yeah." Ranboo said nervously.

"Natural talent then. Must be." He closed the sketchbook and handed it back to Ranboo. "Phil wasn't exaggerating, your art is amazing Ranboo. For now I'd advise that you continue working with new medias during this class."

Ranboo nodded and went to find a seat at the back of the room.

There was a table behind Fundy and Eret (the boy who he didn't know was working next to them on a large sculpture) and it was currently empty. Being Ranboo and too socially awkward to approach people, he slide into a seat at it and flipped open his art book, staring at the outline he had started earlier that he had been planning to try painting over. 

A few minutes after he had started adding more detail to the outline, the chairs on the opposite side of the table got pulled out and Fundy, Eret and the boy he didn't know slipped into the seats, placing their art projects on the table in front of them, the unknown boy had left his where it was.

Ranboo jumped when he looked up after losing his eraser, having been so focused on his own art that he hadn't realised they were there.

"Holy cow. You scared me." Ranboo gasped, his heart beating fast.

Eret grinned at him, "Sorry, we said hi but you were so in the zone that you didn't hear us. I don't think we were properly introduced earlier by the way, I'm Eret, I'm a senior, you can use any pronouns, I don't mind."

"I'm Noah, everyone calls me Foolish though, also a senior." The boy in the grey shark hoodie grinned. He had two different coloured eyes, Ranboo noticed, one was green and the other was a caramel brown that almost looked golden. 

"Fundy. We met before. He/Him pronouns, junior like you." Fundy said.

"Oh yeah, he/him pronouns for me too. Sorry I forgot." Foolish added in hurriedly.

Ranboo smiled hesitantly, "I'm Ranboo, he/him pronouns."

"Cool. Your art is amazing by the way." Fundy grinned at him.

Ranboo relaxed a bit, feeling slightly more comfortable.

"Thanks, so is yours. I've never tried painting before." Fundy was working on a painting of a fox, except he was only using paint and his hands, which resulted in very messy hands but an amazing painting from what he'd seen so far.

The four fell into a comfortable conversation, eventually being rejoined by Niki (this time with wet hair and wearing a yellow sweater that was too big and Ranboo could have sworn he had seen Wilbur wearing when he first arrived).

When the bell rang signaling the end of class, Ranboo stayed behind to wait for Fundy to clean himself up, waiting until he had washed all of the paint off of his hands before the two left the classroom to find Tommy, Purpled and Tubbo waiting outside.

"There you guys are!" Tubbo said at the same time Purpled asked, "What took you so long?" As Tommy whooped in joy and said loudly, "Finally I was about to fucking eat Tubbo over here cause I'm that hungry!"

"Sorry, Ranboo was waiting for me to clean up. My fault." Fundy grinned as they set off to what Ranboo assumed was the canteen.

He felt oddly welcome in the group, Tubbo and Tommy picking on Purpled for something he had said while they were waiting, and Fundy rambling on about some computer he'd been building with the occasional help from Tubbo and Sam. 

Ranboo heard someone call out a name. He didn't know who they were calling out too but as soon as they called it, the entire energy of the group changed.

He noticed how Fundy seemed to flinch and curl in on himself, his face crumpling and obviously feeling pain and hurt in a way that was impossible for Ranboo to understand.

Tommy turned around, his face annoyed, and immediately Purpled positioned himself in a way that meant he could easily grab Tommy if he needed to as Tubbo placed a comforting hand on Fundy's arm. 

Ranboo was confused.

"OI! FUCKING SAY IT AGAIN! I DARE YOU!" Tommy shouted, causing people nearby to turn and stare.

"Keep it under control Tommy." Purpled whispered quietly when Tommy seemed to get more mad.

Ranboo was beyond confused at this point. _Was that a spark that just flicked between Tommy's fingers? No. He's seeing things now_...

"GO ON! FUCKING DEAD NAME MY FRIEND ONE MORE TIME AND SEE WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS!" Tommy yelled, stepping towards the blond-haired senior who Ranboo now realised had been speaking. 

"Tommy." Tubbo hissed, his tone holding warning.

_Dead name? Who was-_

Oh.

Suddenly the way Fundy seemed to deflate and how Tubbo was holding his hand comfortingly made sense. He was trans. 

Ranboo felt anger suddenly, a feeling he hadn't felt this strongly in a long time.

How dare they?

He might only have met Fundy an hour ago, but Fundy seemed like an amazing guy and Ranboo felt protective towards him.

The situation was escalating, Tommy squaring up to the asshole who had dead named Fundy on purpose and Purpled trying to stop him despite the obvious anger in his stance.

A crowd was forming, people sensing a fight brewing.

"What's going on?" Asked a familiar voice.

Ranboo turned around and found that Dream, Sapnap and Eret had pushed to the front of the crowd. 

Eret had hurried over to Fundy after spotting the self loathing on his face and was currently having some sort of silent conversation with him, the two locked in eye contact and Eret's face growing upset all of a sudden before crushing Fundy into a hug and muttering something into his ear that no one could hear.

Sapnap had pulled Tommy away from the trio of seniors, a hand on his shoulder in warning.

Tommy shrugged him off angrily. 

"This fucker dead named Fundy." He spat, gesturing towards the blond haired boy. The two brunettes behind him looked uncomfortable. Clearly they hadn't wanted this much attention brought to them.

Sapnap immediately stopped pulling Tommy away. "He did what."

"Dead named Fundy." Purpled supplied, despite the fact it wasn't really a question.

Dream whispered something into Sapnap's ear, his face hard and unreadable and Sapnap nodded. Eret made eye contact with the two and Dream nodded at him too.

"Right. Nothing to see here so you better all fuck off!" Dream announced to the crowd. They all ignored him, continuing to watch who would throw the first punch. 

Eret started leading Fundy and the group of Juniors away. Purpled was gripping Tommy's arm tightly and whispering to him. 

Occasionally Ranboo heard a whisper of what they were saying, "Come on Tommy, remember Phil's training. Keep it under control." He even thought he saw a spark flash in Tommy's eyes or dance along his fingers sometimes, but he decided he must be seeing things.

They pushed through the crowd, Eret keeping a protective arm around Fundy's shoulders and glaring at everyone, Tubbo and Ranboo following behind, Purpled and Tommy bringing up the rear. 

They heard Dream shout again, "Why are you fuckers still here? We already told you there's nothing happening!" 

After that people finally dispersed. 

No one questioned it when Dream showed up at the canteen ten minutes later with bruised and bloody knuckles and Sapnap following behind, almost suspiciously clear of visible injuries. 

George merely sighed and dragged Dream out of the canteen. When they returned, Dream's bruised knuckles were gone, back to normal.

Ranboo blinked.

_Huh?_

After lunch, they had two classes left. Tubbo and Ranboo headed to English, Fundy and Tommy to Computing, Purpled to what Tommy called his "Smart kid science class".

Their final class of the day was Phil's class. 

"I need to use the toilet so if you go ahead without me I can catch up later." Ranboo said, spotting one to his left.

Tubbo stopped, "You sure?"

"You said Phil doesn't mind if we're late right?" Ranboo double-checked.

Tubbo nodded and the two parted ways.

Ranboo was washing his hands when something odd happened. The mirror seemed to glitch out for a second, the cubicles in the background morphing into an empty bathtub and toilet, the walls becoming almost marble-like instead of grey with graffiti all over them, the sink he was washing his hands in become larger and more ornate and the mirror that he was staring at himself in becoming cleaner and larger before his surroundings glitched back into the cheap school toilets.

Ranboo froze, the water still running as he stared at himself in the scratched and smudged mirror.

_What was that?_

He had stayed the same... but his surroundings had changed... right?

_No he must be seeing things again._

Ranboo hurried down the hallway, head held low and brain spinning, had that really just happened? More importantly what was that?

He paused outside of Phil's classroom, collecting himself before he entered.

"You almost lost control?" Phil's voice asked, sounding concerned.

"It's not my fault, he fucking-"

"Tommy. That situation could have ended very differently if Purpled wasn't there to keep you calm. What would you have done if you hurt someone?"

"He would have deserved it-"

"No Tommy. What he did was wrong but you could have seriously hurt him if you lost control. Nobody deserves to be hurt, no matter how much of a terrible person they are."

"Dad-"

"Don't you 'Dad' me, Tommy. What would you have done if you outed us? All of us? Hm? How many people would be in danger then, it would have spread like wildfire, Eret, Schlatt and Niki wouldn't have been able to deal with them all-"

"Phil." Eret's voice interrupted. There was silence for a few seconds and Ranboo felt like he was missing some sort of silent communication.

Phil suddenly appeared at the door and Ranboo jumped, embarrassed to have been caught accidentally eavesdropping. Because it was an accident.. he hadn't meant to overhear the conversation.

"Ranboo! Come in!" Phil smiled, although Ranboo felt it was forced in this situation.

He entered the room to find that it was very different from all the other classrooms. Beanbags instead of chairs were arranged in a circle, there were lava lamps and things to fiddle with. The floor was half covered with exercise mats in the back half of the classroom.

There weren't many people inside. 

Tommy was sulking on one of the beanbags, Purpled sat next to him trying to make him feel better (and failing), Tubbo was chatting to Niki and George by the lava lamp, Dream and Eret were attempting to beat each other in chess, Technoblade was reading and Foolish was doodling on a piece of paper. Sapnap was sat on another beanbag with another boy he didn't know sleeping with his head in his lap. There was also a new girl who he didn't know sat next to Quackity. She had purple hair and was hitting the boy with a cushion, shrieking at him in a voice so strongly accented that Ranboo only understood a few words of what she was screeching... enough to understand that she was swearing angrily at him in her Irish accent.

"Becca!" Quackity cried, holding his arms above his head in a feeble attempt to defend himself from her attacks, the light around him was almost rippling away from him. Ranboo rubbed his eyes, he must not be sleeping enough. "Please!"

"Call me that again and I'll fuckin curb stomp you!" She screeched.

Phil sighed, "Quackity, you're losing control again. Minx. Put the cushion down and stop hitting Quackity. I'm pretty sure you've scared Ranboo into thinking you're crazy."

Minx dropped the cushion and turned to Ranboo. "I'm not insane! What are you trying to say Phil?" She spotted Ranboo staring at her with wide eyes. "Oh. Hey Ranboo. I'm Minx and this small idiot is Quackity. He's a cunt."

"Language Minx."

She exploded again. Ranboo could have sworn her eyes flashed red for a second. "What do you fuckin mean language? You don't fuckin tell Tommy 'language' when he fuckin swears!"

"Minx." Phil warned.

She huffed and fell silent, crossing her arms and pouting. 

It turned out Phil's class was a class for foster kids, kids who struggled with mental health, and kids who struggled with other things, like anger issues and ADHD. At least that's what he was told, but he felt like he might be being lied to. The conversation he had overheard between Tommy and Phil... the sparks he may or may not have seen... Minx's eyes... the toilet incident...

Something wasn't adding up. And while Ranboo sat listening to Karl (the boy who had been sleeping) explain to Phil why he hadn't been practising the meditation Phil wanted him to (how Phil could tell, Ranboo had no idea), he started to wonder if maybe these people weren't as normal as they had first seemed.

Something was definitely off.

Now Ranboo just needed to find out what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I made a mistake with the american school system, please tell me so I can fix it...
> 
> Minx:  
> Level 1  
> Shapeshifter
> 
> Quackity:  
> Level 1  
> Light Manipulator
> 
> Tubbo:  
> Level 2  
> Speed Manipulation
> 
> Puffy:  
> Level 2  
> Power Locating
> 
> Badboyhalo:  
> Level 2  
> Empath - Able to feel the emotions the person was feeling the last time they touched whatever he is touching
> 
> JSchlatt:  
> Level 2  
> Mind Manipulation
> 
> Sam:  
> Level 3  
> Telekinesis
> 
> Niki:  
> Level 3  
> Siren Voice
> 
> Eret:  
> Level 3  
> Mind Manipulation/Telepathy
> 
> Tommy:  
> Level 4  
> Lightning Manipulation  
> Mild weather controlling abilities
> 
> Foolish:  
> Level 5  
> Extended Life  
> Can control death to a certain extent (e.g. reviving someone)  
> Accelerated healing abilities
> 
> Karl:  
> Level 5  
> Time Manipulation


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ranboo spends his second evening of attending high school doing homework with Eret and then joining the group for some "bonding"...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight spoiler but also important because I don't want to trigger anyone:  
> TW: Death  
> (Might be triggering to people with Aquaphobia??)
> 
> Sorry, but it had to happen, I promise everything will be okay! <3

Ranboo ate downstairs for the first time that night.

He mainly sat in silence, responding when asked a question but otherwise concentrating on eating his food slowly while listening to the different conversations happening around him. It was just as chaotic as he had been told.

"Tommy please eat with your mouth closed, you know it's disgusting when you don't."

"Someone pass the- yes that thanks."

"Quackity if you don't put the sausage down an eat it with a knife and fork like a normal perso- ew no why would you say that?"

"Will how was band practise?"

"Techno can you stop playing your violin after 10pm? It's loud you know."

Ranboo ate with them again the next night, after what felt like the longest day of school ever - where he briefly met someone called Skeppy in Bad's classroom before Fundy pulled him away to ask for his opinion of Foolish's Ancient Egyptian style sculpture and whether or not he thought it needed pink glitter added to it (after witnessing Foolish's mildly distressed expression as he tried to fend off Fundy and his glitter while Eret laughed, Ranboo had answered no out of pity, leading the other junior away from the sculpture as Foolish stopped hugging it, sighing in pure relief and angling his creation away from the brown-haired cretin for the rest of the class).

It was even more chaotic than the night before, somehow more people at the table than yesterday as Ranboo sat in the same seat as before, sandwiched in between Tommy and Fundy and opposite Eret and Purpled.

Eret was unintentionally monitoring Ranboo's thoughts as the boy listened to Fundy, the teen only contributing every so often.

_"Slow down, you don't need to eat that fast. No one is going to eat your food here. Why am I like talking to myself? I'm weird."_

Eret smiled slightly. Ranboo's thoughts were amusing sometimes.

_"What if they get tired of me? The honeymoon phase has to run out soon...it's day five now..."_

_"I wonder how my cat is..."_

_"I probably should have done more of the catch up work Sam gave me. What if I fall behind and get held back a year?"_

_"Wait... what is Fundy talking about again? Listen you idiot. You're doing the talking to yourself thing again... am I going crazy? First the bathroom thing yesterday and now..."_

Suddenly Eret was shoved out of Ranboo's head as the boy shivered violently, Fundy gave Ranboo an odd look but continuing to talk about the computer he was building.

Eret sat in shock, their mouth open in surprise and his eyes wide.

The only person who had ever been able to push them out without training was Dream... and he had been consciously trying to get rid of the lurking presence that he could feel in his mind, becoming aware of it for the first time after he had had a meltdown in the school toilets after being stuck in a loop of jumping between different realities for ten minutes (which was much longer than you would think), not realising at the time that it was Eret trying to figure out what had happened after finding the boy sobbing and trembling, feebly splashing water in his face in an attempt to ground himself.

Once people had training, the majority of the community could push Eret out, Shlatt and Niki finding it easier than everyone else (probably due to the fact that their powers were extremely similar) and the exceptions being Tubbo, Foolish and Minx, who struggled with blocking other people's influence from their minds no matter how hard they tried. It annoyed the three to no end and Phil made them practise with Eret pretty much everyday, occasionally getting Niki on board and Shlatt too whenever he dropped by the warehouse. Foolish was close to perfect now, as was Minx. But Tubbo couldn't for the life of him figure it out, the practise sessions often ended in either an annoyed and disappointed Tubbo who then spent the rest of the night curled up in bed with Tommy doing his best to reassure him that just because he struggled with this one thing, it didn't mean he was bad at everything (which Tubbo would often convince himself), or Eret getting tired from having to consistently "attack" Tubbo's mind. 

Ranboo hadn't even consciously pushed him out.

It was interesting, Eret thought, because Ranboo's mind would definitely be easy to influence once they were in, he could just tell. And despite the fact that Eret had never used their power like that and never ever would (the idea made him feel ill), he knew that Shlatt had in the past and would do in the future, the teen always claiming that it was just a bit of fun, usually after he had had one too many to drink from his parent's stash. Eret personally didn't see the fun in taking away someone's free will. Neither did Niki. Usually the pair stuck to using their powers to wipe the memories of people who accidentally discovered too much and that was about it, Niki occasionally talking her way out of homework and Eret constantly subconsciously listening to people' thoughts (despite the clear invasion of privacy) as a way to let out some of the power in a way that wasn't harmful.

The more powerful you were, the more you struggled with that. Dream, being a bar six, had to let out large portions of his power at least three times a week, often destroying Sapnap and George in the manhunts they staged in the warehouse, Dream creating a realistic version of the manhunt they played in Minecraft with the help of Skeppy, who was also a reality manipulator.

Purpled released power and energy in a similar way to Dream, the teenager winning almost every game of bedwars they played in the warehouse (again the reality was manipulated by Dream and Skeppy), only ever having lost to Technoblade in a 1v1 match (many bets had been placed and much money had been lost and chores had been swapped).

Somehow, Fundy was lucky enough to have escaped the pressure to use his powers, just like the empaths of the community (Phil and Bad), Puffy's power location, Minx's shape-shifting and George's healing. Somehow none of them felt any pain when they held their abilities in for too long. The original theory had been that it was because they weren't extremely powerful, all of them ranging between bar three and bar one, which hadn't fitted perfectly because people like Quackity and Tubbo still needed to release power, they could just go much longer without using their abilities than Dream could, for example. Then Fundy came along and ruined that theory anyway. Now they had no idea.

Eret wasn't quite sure how Ranboo had not only managed to push them out, but he had also managed to keep Eret out with a sort of mental barrier. Like a metal box surrounding his mind. Simple, yet effective.

All subconsciously.

What had he been thinking about a bathroom? Something about that memory had freaked him out, Eret had managed to get that much before he was pushed out.

 _"Phil. We need to talk. Now."_ Eret tapped at Phil's mental barriers, washing the message around his head until a small gap in Phil's mental wall opened up (Eret could have broken in if he really wanted to, it was just extra effort) and he sent the message flying through it into Phil's mind.

_"Sounds serious. How urgent?"_

_"Possible deep shit urgent. So now."_

_"Outside. 5 minutes? I'll leave first. Follow a few minutes later."_ Phil knew that Eret would have just spoken out loud if he wanted others to know about whatever conversation they were about to have.

Eret nodded his head slightly to show that he had heard.

Five minutes later they were sat on the stone back doorsteps that led into the almost field-like garden that backed onto a literal field, which backed onto the woods which hid the large, empty warehouses and the obstacle courses that the teens had spent last summer developing.

"So he pushed you out and kept you out without even realising he was doing it?" Phil clarified, one finger rubbing his right temple as he thought hard.

Eret could feel Phil's thoughts whizzing around his head even through the barrier. Phil's forming headache was literally becoming Eret's forming headache too.

They both knew that meant Ranboo was powerful, or at least abnormally good at dealing with abilities for someone untrained and seemingly completely unaware of them.

"He might be a reality manipulator, like Dream and Skeppy." Eret suggested, knowing that Dream and Skeppy were good at blocking them out in the first place rather than pushing him out once he was already in their heads, better at defense rather than attack. 

"Fundy was sure that his power was unfamiliar though." Phil muttered thoughtfully, "Meaning that if he is a reality manipulator, he's not the same as Dream and Skeppy."

"So we can cross off skipping through different dimensions and morphing realities then?" Eret questioned.

"Most likely, yes, but we can't be certain until he-"

"Eret? Eret are you out here?"

The two froze as Ranboo's voice approached.

"Oh Eret... Phil. Hi."

"Hey Ranboo." Eret smiled, slightly falsely. 

Ranboo got the feeling he had interrupted something, nerves bubbling in his stomach.

"Er- sorry to interrupt but it's just that you're in my psychology class and I don't understand the homework... I would have asked Sapnap but he... um... he's Sapnap. Niki left with Minx to go somewhere so she's not here either and no one else is in our class.."

Phil could feel the boy's anxiety, as could Eret.

Ranboo had been terrified to ask and had debated not doing the homework rather than asking for help from Eret, before eventually deciding (after half an hour of worried leg bouncing and staring blankly at his homework) that not doing the homework would be worse as the psychology teacher quiet frankly scared him half to death. Plus she had seemed to automatically hate him from the moment he stepped into the classroom behind Eret that morning. If looks could kill, Ranboo would have been six feet under within seconds.

"I don't mind! Honestly I love helping people with school, don't tell anyone that because they'll call me a nerd." Eret grinned, standing up from the step. Phil stayed sat where he was, staring out at the woods and clearly deep in thought.

"Thanks." Ranboo smiled, feeling bad for interrupting whatever conversation the two had been having.

The two headed up to Ranboo's bedroom where all of his homework and catch up work was currently spread in an oddly shaped messy circle where Ranboo had previously been sat in the centre of, switching between topics when his attention span ran out.

Ranboo noticed that when Eret wasn't wearing the heels and was just wearing sneakers, jeans and a black hoodie like they were today, Eret was actually smaller than him. Not by too much though.

"What part were you struggling with?" Eret asked after the two sat down on the floor, Eret not questioning that that was where Ranboo had decided to do his homework.

Ranboo's room had been decorated now. His bed covers were grey, there were black curtains on the windows, the few walls that weren't slanted had been painted white. There were no photos or posters stuck on the walls. It was all very monochrome, Eret noted. Very simplistic and very clean. In fact, it was so clean it almost looked like a spare bedroom, the only thing that indicated it was lived in at all were the crumpled sheets of the bed that Ranboo hadn't made that morning and the orange hoodie dumped on the floor next to the bed. 

Ranboo pointed to the section that he needed help on and Eret read it through (despite having already completed the homework himself) before beginning to explain. 

Half an hour later, after Eret had explained it patiently three times, it finally clicked and Ranboo finally understood.

"Thank you so much, I honestly just had no idea what it was talking about." Ranboo grinned thankfully. "You'd make a good teacher, you're really good at it."

Surprisingly, Eret looked mildly embarrassed as they stared down at her feet. "Thanks, I've thought about it before but I wasn't sure whether I'd be any good..."

Ranboo opened his mouth to reply when a loud shout cut through the house, "ERET! EREEEEEET! WE'RE GOING TO THE LAKE, WANT TO COME?"

Eret shook his head exasperatedly as Tommy continued to screech loudly when they didn't call back.

"EREEEEEEEEET!!"

"TOMMY SHUT UP I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Wilbur shouted back.

"GET UP WILL! YOU'RE COMING TOO!" He paused and took a deep breath, "EREEE-" Tommy's loud voice was cut off.

"That'll be Wilbur smothering him with a pillow." Eret muttered, smirking slightly. "Want to come with?"

Ranboo hesitated.

_He hated water._

"Who will be there?"

He needed to be more friendly though...

"Just a few people probably. You should have met everyone before. Will, Tommy, Tubbo, Schlatt, Sapnap... most likely Purpled and Connor too. A few others might come but I don't really know."

_Who was Schlatt?_

That seemed like a lot more than "just a few people" to Ranboo. It seemed more like "a lot of people who already know and like each other"...

"Sure. I'll come. Are you sure-"

"Course I am. Don't be silly, nobody will care if you come because we all like you anyway." Eret reassured as Ranboo shrugged on a hoodie before following him out of the room and downstairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, Tommy and Wilbur were wrestling, Tommy wriggling and limbs flailing while an annoyed and disgruntled looking Wilbur kept a hand clamped over his mouth and used his older sibling strength to attempt to keep the younger teen still. Purpled and Sapnap were stood to one side watching in amusement.

"Don't leave without me! I'm coming!" Tubbo called from above them, appearing a few seconds later with a large bag.

Tommy raised his eyebrows, finally submitting to Wilbur and letting him win. "What's in the bag Tubza?"

"Extra clothes and stuff. We'll need them."

"What's happening?" Connor asked, walking through the front door of the house like it was his own home. "Why did I get a text from Tommy claiming that it was an emergency? Did Ra- oh. Hi Ranboo."

Ranboo smiled slightly, internally panicking. Did Ranboo what? Why had Connor thought it had something to do with him?

Eret was glaring at Connor from behind Ranboo, drawing a finger across her throat very slowly as they did so.

Connor winced and turned to Tommy to find him still trapped under Wilbur's arm and feebly struggling as Wilbur messed up his hair, moaning about it and trying to kick Wilbur's shins. "So is the emergency that Tommy is once again losing to Wilbur or did he just lie?"

Wilbur finally released Tommy (who instantly tried to smooth down his ruffled hair indignantly, flipping off Wilbur when his hair stayed just as messy, sticking up in all directions), "He lied. We're going to the lake and he wanted you to come."

Connor huffed. "Thought so. I was comfy too, you made me get out of bed."

Tubbo checked his phone. "It's 5pm... it's not even dark yet"

"And?" Connor challenged.

Foolish snorted, making Ranboo jump. He hadn't realised he had been here.

"Anyway, are we going or not?" Tommy asked, bounding towards the door with Tubbo behind him pushing a still half asleep looking Wilbur in front of him.

The group set off towards the woods, Eret and Foolish walking on either side of Ranboo explaining what The Lake was.

"It's not really a lake, it's more of a huge pond that Techno and Niki found one summer ages ago." Foolish explained. "We started hanging out there after Phil checked it to make sure it was safe, he was worried there might be like underwater currents or something."

Ranboo wondered how you checked if there were underwater currents without just getting stuck in one...

"We go there all the time, Sam and HBomb even helped us put up hammocks and a wooden roof over part of it. Well mainly Sam, HBomb mainly just slept in the hammock Sam put up and pretended to direct him..." Eret grinned.

Ranboo couldn't bring himself to smile back, his stomach a pit of bubbling anxiety. "Um... do I have to go in the water?"

Foolish seemed to sense that something about his voice was off, "Nah, I'm not. Not today, don't feel like getting wet. Tommy, Tubbo, Purpled and Connor definitely will though, Sapnap and Will too if they manage to force them in. Eret...?"

"Nope. Definitely not. I didn't spend half an hour finally perfecting that eyeliner from that video I've been trying to copy from just for it to get ruined by lake water." Eret grumbled, making Foolish grin as Ranboo relaxed slightly.

He wasn't going to be the only one in the water, that was good. It wouldn't look odd now.

The group of teens finally arrived at The Lake.

_Huh._

It really was just a huge natural pool of water that they'd found and claimed as their own.

The pool of water was large, surrounded by trees on all side and getting deeper and deeper the further away from them it got. There was a large rock on the other side from where they were stood, a small waterfall gently trickling down it into the water. There was a rope swing hanging from a branch that had grown over the water. Ranboo spotted the wooden roof and the hammocks that Eret had mentioned to their left with a teen relaxing in one, a cigarette held between his fingers.

Ranboo imagined that if you weren't deathly afraid of water then it would be a peaceful, angelic refuge.

Tommy, Tubbo and Purpled whooped and broke into a run, Tubbo dropping his large bag of clothes on the floor and almost tripping up Wilbur.

A few seconds later the youngest teens were followed by Connor and Sapnap jumping and breaking into a run, cries of annoyance coming from them, when water seemingly came out of nowhere and splashed them in the face, soaking them.

Eret and Foolish exchanged a wide glance, discretely watching how Ranboo's eyes widened and darted around the trees as he tried to figure out where the water had come from.

Eret internally cursed as Ranboo's confused thoughts floated towards him.

What was Purpled doing using his powers like that in front of Ranboo? Was he fucking stupid? Ranboo wasn't an idiot, he was observant and he was going to notice when stuff that wasn't normal happened.

"Oi Purpled! I'm going to get you for that one!" Sapnap shouted, putting extra effort into his step to catch up, tackling the teen and pushing him into the water.

Purpled fell and landed with a loud splash, his startled shriek cutting off half way through as he became submerged. Ranboo felt his chest tighten with panic when his head didn't submerge. _One, two, three, four_... Purpled's head popped up and Ranboo sighed, feeling slightly stupid, _not everyone can't swim you idiot_ , his purple hoodie stuck to him and his joggers heavy and wet. He pushed his wet fringe out of his eyes and glared at Sapnap, "Sapnap! My clothes!"

Sapnap and Connor were sniggering together with their backs turned to the trees, watching Purpled wade his way back to the land, so they didn't see the two figures sneaking up behind them until it was too late, screeching as all four of them fell into the water. Tommy and Tubbo having attacked from behind, leaping and using their momentum to grab them by the waist, pulling them into the water with them. 

Meanwhile, Wilbur had walked over to the teen who Ranboo didn't know and tipped him out of his hammock, stealing the cigarette and putting it out, crushing it under his heel and hissing something he couldn't fully hear.

"Get it together man, Ranboo's here and you're going to freak him out. Also no funny mind business or Eret will get pissed." Will whispered as he tugged Schlatt out of the hammock. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Nothing."

"Really?" Wilbur asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah really, fuck off Will. I'm not fucking drunk I'm just high as a fucking kite." Schlatt grumbled.

Wilbur sighed, "Jesus Christ Schlatt. You're going to terrify the poor kid."

"Hey Schlatt." Foolish said at the trio approached, Eret sliding into the hammock Schlatt had just been forced out of and smiling smugly at the teen when he glared at them.

Ranboo and Schlatt's introduction went about as well as Wilbur had imagined. Schlatt had been the dick he usually was, terrifying the kid after he smelt the drugs and saw how dilated his eyes were. Good things weren't often associated with drugs... especially as a foster kid. If the way Ranboo warily watched Schlatt for the rest of the time they talked was any indication, Wilbur would assume he hadn't had pleasant past experiences associated with them.

Meanwhile, by the edge of "The Lake", Hoodies and jeans and t-shirts had been deposited by the side of the water while what seemed like the biggest water fight of the century took place. It didn't help much, the water splashing onto them anyway.

"WILL! WILL GET IN HERE!" Tommy shouted after maybe half an hour of the five who were already in the water having a very intense water fight. Tubbo, Connor and Purpled were discretely using their powers to their advantage while Tommy couldn't without frying everyone in the pool and Sapnap's fire was useless, leaving the two to gang up together to defend themselves from Tubbo's fast attacks, and Connor disappearing under the water for an abnormally long amount of time and then appearing under them, tugging them down with the help of Purpled creating currents. It was very much an unfair fight. Tommy wanted Wilbur on their side to even it up, even though the teen's power was just as defenseless against the water attack as theirs were.

Ranboo and Foolish were sat on a ledge half way up the side of the tall rock by the waterfall talking, Foolish was mainly trying to distract the teen from the stupid idiots next to them who were using their powers in a very poorly hidden way.

A few hours after they had arrived, Eret, Schlatt and Sapnap were high and chilling in the hammocks, Wilbur was too, although he was now in the water with the other three, which was very amusing for them as Wilbur wasn't being very responsive, just sitting on one of the rocks that Dream had morphed to make a sort of semi-submerged natural seat in the water with his eyes closed as the younger teens plus Connor harassed him with water, splashing him until he finally agreed to join them in their water war. Foolish and Ranboo had been talking for a while, until eventually Foolish had somehow fallen asleep leaning against the rocky wall behind them, leaving Ranboo to watch the chaos that was teenagers unsupervised.

"CANON BALL!" Tubbo screeched, jumped from the top of the rock above his head and landing in the water with a large splash, sending water flying everywhere.

Foolish spluttered awake as water hit him directly in his face, waking him in the most unpleasant way possible. Ranboo flinched violently as he was drenched as well, the sudden cold startling him.

"TUBBO!" Foolish shouted in semi-rage, causing the teenager to sheepishly smile and wave.

Two people emerged from the path in the woods, bickering over who got to have the last Oreo in the packet.

"Oh. Hey guys, I thought I heard something. Told you Dream." George greeted, swiping the last Oreo and shoving in into his mouth before Dream could react, which resulted in Dream staring at him with his mouth open in betrayal as the smaller teen skipped off towards Sapnap with a smug grin on his face.

"Fuck you George. That Oreo was mine and you knew it." Dream muttered sourly before skulking towards Wilbur and sitting on the dry bit of rock next to his head with his legs crossed to keep him balanced.

Another half an hour later and it was starting to get dark, Tommy, Tubbo and Connor had climbed out of the water, shivering in towels and slipping behind the wooden wall that Sam had built to change into the dry clothes that Tubbo had brought. Eret, Wilbur, Schlatt, Sapnap, Dream and George were sat around a small fire. How they had started it, Ranboo had no idea.

Eret and Wilbur were arguing over something, George was sat in between Sapnap and Dream peacefully asleep with his head on Sapnap's shoulder, Dream trying to persuade the other boy to let him pour water on the sleeping one, which Sapnap was stoutly refusing to do, claiming that George hadn't slept properly in a while, which made Dream stop trying to wake him. Schlatt was staring off into the distance, clearly in his own world.

Foolish and Ranboo were heading over to the group, attracted by the heat and warmth coming from there when Foolish lost his footing.

The pair had been walking over a particularly rocky area that had been safe to walk on earlier but had now become a death trap, water from the water fight having drenched it and made it slippery. Foolish slipped and Ranboo automatically grabbed onto his arm, temporarily steadying him only for the pair to slip the moment they tried to stand back up again, falling backwards into the water.

If the way the teenagers around the fire snorted was any indication, it was fucking hilarious to watch.

But Ranboo thought otherwise, his eyes going wide as he made contact with the water.

_No_

_No no no no no._

_Swim._

_Come on Ranboo. Swim._

Foolish emerged from the water seconds after falling in, laughing at his stupidity along with the other teens and ready to apologise to Ranboo for his clumsiness and making them get wet after all, only to find that Ranboo hadn't emerged yet.

He waited a few seconds and then started to panic when he still didn't surface, the light now faded too much for him too see where Ranboo was, the water dark and ominous and terrifyingly still. He remembered the fear he had heard in Ranboo's voice earlier when he had asked if he had to go in the water. Foolish had been able to tell that the boy was petrified of the idea... why? 

He froze.

Fuck.

_What if he couldn't swim?_

The water was particularly deep here, and he was having to tread water to keep his head above the water, his clothes weighing him down and making it difficult.

_If Ranboo couldn't swim, then he stood no chance._

Ranboo struggled, kicking his legs out against the water that surrounded him, pushing in on him from all sides... dragging him down like shackles around his ankles and weights on his wrists.

The already fading evening light was getting further and further away from him as he sunk lower and lower.

_Swim._

_Swim swim swim._

_You saw everyone else doing it earlier._

_It's so easy._

_You're the only one who can't do it._

_Useless. You're useless._

_Swim!_

But he couldn't. The water was pressing in on him and his clothes were too heavy, pulling him down into the dark water like anchors strapped around his body, his shoes making it so that he couldn't kick properly as he sank, Foolish's kicking legs disappearing from view.

His lungs were starting to burn and his chest felt like an iron bar was strapped around it.

Did this water never end? Was he just going to keep sinking for all eternity?

_He was six, struggling in the bathtub as an older kid forced his head under the water, keeping it there until he was almost unconscious from lack of air, the bubbles from his terrified screaming finally stopping._

"Connor! Connor come here! I can't find Ranboo!" Foolish gasped, his tone so panicked that all the teenagers immediately sprang into action, Connor pulling off his hoodie and shoes before running towards Foolish's voice with Purpled and Dream by his side. "He hasn't resurfaced yet!"

_He was nine, crying by the pool as his swimming teacher tried to cox him back into the water while the other kids laughed at him. He had just climbed out after another kid had splashed him, making him panic when he came up for air and got a mouthful of water instead._

"He went under and he hasn't come up. I don't know if he can swim or not." Foolish explained when the teenagers had reached him, crouching by the edge of the water while he ducked his head underwater again in an attempt to spot Ranboo. But night was falling now, the light now almost completely gone, and the water was pitch black.

Connor quickly slipped into the water and joined Foolish in his searching.

_He was twelve and struggling to keep his head above the water in the lake, listening to the laughing of the kids in his class who had pushed him in, watching his limbs flail as he fought and gasped for air. He never did learn how to swim. They left and he was drowning... down down down... the light getting further and further away until strong hands clamped under his arms and pulled him towards the surface. A dog walker who had been passing by had spotted him and saved him._

Ranboo could feel his limbs growing heavy as he slowly started to lose consciousness, the burning in his lungs telling him that surely he was drowning. 

No dog walker to save him now.

His ears popped as the water pressure got too much.

Ranboo decided that if there was a God that he'd be meeting soon, then the first thing he'd do was punch him and then ask why he had to choose drowning as how he wanted Ranboo to die. Drowning was painful, he didn't think he'd done anything bad enough to deserve this...

The water around him glitched like the bathroom had, pitch black water temporarily morphing into shallow, tropical water, the white sand of the floor visible below him and the cold becoming warm. A child with bright blond hair and pink swimming trunks paddling with a parent made eye contact with him and screamed. Ranboo glitched again and he was back in the cold waters, darkness pressing in on all sides.

He didn't have the brain power to think about how abnormal what had just happened was.

He was still sinking.

Which way was the surface again?

He didn't know anymore.

Ranboo closed his eyes, finally giving up and relaxing his limbs, letting himself sink to the bottom.

His back finally grazed the rocky floor.

_So there was a bottom._

Ranboo's last bubbles of air escaped from his lips, drifting upwards and answering the question of which way the surface was, except Ranboo didn't see because his eyes were closed.

His chest seemed to sigh one last time.

And then he stopped moving.

Above the surface, Foolish froze as he felt a ripple twang through the air, Dream froze too, feeling the ripple in reality just like Foolish had, their abilities both in full use at that moment. Eret was silent, hand held to her mouth as they stopped being able to hear Ranboo's panicked thoughts get further and further away, suddenly cutting out completely. 

The silence in Eret's head was deafening.

"No." Foolish gasped, ducking down under the water frantically. "No. No no no. No it's not possible."

Eret turned to Dream with watery eyes, staring at him as if he would tell them it wasn't true. Dream stood completely still, face pale and cold. Foolish was desperately swimming down as far as he could before having to resurface. Connor was searching too, his water abilities meaning he didn't need to resurface.

Everyone else was watching in a horrible silence, scared and confused.

Tubbo screamed when Connor resurfaced with the body, hand flying to his mouth as Tommy clutched the other tightly.

Purpled crumpled into Sapnap, who didn't even stumble, completely in shock.

Tommy started crying, and Schlatt put a hand on his shoulder, face hard and emotionless. 

George crumpled to his knees, staring blankly at Connor and looking like he might be sick.

Foolish let himself get pulled out of the water by Wilbur and pulled into a hug, both of them with hot tears pouring down their faces.

Connor was crying too, guilt heavy on his shoulders.

_He should have been faster._

Because in his arms, lay Ranboo, his skin cold and with a ghostly bluish tint, his eyes closed and mouth cracked open slightly, his hair stuck to his face.

And he wasn't breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Connor:  
> Level 1  
> Water Breathing  
> Extra Abilities When In Contact With Water 
> 
> Sorry to leave you guys on like the worst cliff hanger, but I have a load of exams for the next two weeks that actually started today, so updates might be less frequent for a little bit depending on how much energy I have and time I spend revising. I was going to do a double update but that probably isn't possible now because it's my birthday today so I actually didn't get chance to finish the next chapter... so just take this one for now!


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foolish and George try to save Ranboo and Karl has news about the future...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is posted later than I planned but here it is!  
> Sorry for like making you all sad last chapter and then leaving you hanging... take this peace offering??   
> Also if anyone saw the update earlier then I'm sorry that was an accident, I have a new laptop and somehow accidentally hit the post button on a half finished chapter with multiple errors in... I'm blaming the laptop... totally...

One.

Blow air in.

Two.

Pump pump pump.

Three.

Blow air in...

Four.

Pump pump pump... 

They watched as George performed CPR, hands glowing as he tried to use his powers to shock Ranboo's heart into restarting as he pressed down on his chest.

Eventually George stopped, out of breath and exhausted from using so much of his powers.

"Foolish... do you think you can revive hi-?" George didn't finish his sentence when he saw Foolish's state.

He was still in shock, staring blankly at the water in a catatonic state, his hair wet and stuck to his forehead, water droplets that could have been tears rolling down his face. The teen was shaking and shivering violently but no one had noticed, everyone was naturally completely focused on George and Ranboo. Connor was sat next to him in a similar state, although he had a towel clutched around his body tightly.

Dream was having difficulty controlling his powers, the reality around him morphing and rippling away from him in visible waves as he only just managed to stay grounded to their reality, Sapnap clutching his hand tightly like an anchor. 

Tubbo, Purpled and Tommy were stood together, horrified expressions on their young faces and tears pouring down their cheeks.

George couldn't save him. He wasn't a miracle worker... he couldn't bring people back from the dead...

"He can't be dead. He can't be." Eret muttered.

Wilbur and Schlatt stood next to them, both of their faces filled with grief.

"Eret..."

"No! He... he _can't_ be... we only just met him..."

"Eret I'm so _so_ sorry." George whispered, feeling like it was his fault.

He was a healer. He should be able to save people... that was his entire thing...

"I can do it. I can save him." Foolish rasped desperately, scrambling to his feet and stumbling over to George and Ranboo. "I can... I can..."

Nobody tried to stop him as he placed his hands on Ranboo's cheeks and bent his head, silent tears still falling down his face and splattering onto Ranboo's rapidly chilling skin.

He started muttering under his breath and his hands started to glow bright gold, eliciting gasps from the onlookers. George stayed next to him, ready to step in if it somehow got out of hand.

The heavenly glow started to spread, tendrils of pale gold and white entwining around Ranboo's body and slowly spreading until his entire body was encased in an odd layer of light. Slowly, the light started to spread to Foolish, twining around where his hands were connected with Ranboo's cold face and spreading up his arms until eventually he was covered in gold light too. Foolish's tears seemed to intensify and they watched with wide eyes as Foolish finally stopped chanting and muttering and opened his eyes. His previously two-toned eyes were now fully gold and his tears had started to run with traces of gold too. 

It was oddly beautiful.

The light encasing the pair slowly faded and Foolish blinked, his eyes returned to normal as he collapsed back into George, who had been waiting and caught him as he slumped, completely exhausted.

Everyone waited for something to happen, but Ranboo stayed still, his eyes closed and chest unmoving.

"No. No it was supposed to work..." Foolish breathed after a minute of staring at Ranboo desperately. "I- I gave him some of my life. It can't have not worked... it ha- ha-"

Foolish collapsed into tears, George holding him close as he sobbed, his own eyes filling with tears as well. Neither of them had been able to save him.

He gave him some of his life... the pain he must have just experienced... George didn't even want to think about it.

The only sound was Foolish crying as Ranboo stayed dead. It hadn't worked.

Grief weighed heavy on the group as they watched the only two teens who could have saved him embrace, both exhausted as one sobbed into the other's shoulder. 

Silence fell as Foolish's sobs slowed until he became too numb to cry anymore, simply holding onto George tightly as he stared at Ranboo's face.

With his closed eyes, it almost looked like he was sleeping... except his lips had an unnatural blue tint and his skin was abnormally pale.

Suddenly, there was the sound of loud cut off choking and then spluttering and gurgling.

George immediately spun to Ranboo, letting go of Foolish as he gasped, his lips parting in shock.

_Oh my God._

The teen was still lying on his back, but he was no longer motionless and horrifyingly still, his entire body shaking with the force of which his body tried to expel the water from his lungs. But Ranboo was choking on the water he was trying to cough up, lying on his back and too weak to move himself. George immediately rolled him onto his side after realising the mistake he had made in the panic of trying to get Ranboo breathing again, putting the teen in a very shoddy recovery position on his side, moving his long limbs to the best of his ability. He wished he had payed more attention in the emergency medical class Phil had persuaded him to take last summer.

Ranboo was coughing up so much water it was like he'd swallowed the lake, water pouring out of his mouth as he coughed, blood eventually starting to run down the side of his mouth as the water became pink with blood and saliva and started to slow. His coughing was becoming more feeble, the water slowly trickling to a stop as Ranboo's eyelids fluttered, too exhausted to open them, his breathing raspy and heavy as he dry heaved a few times, making a retching sound.

Drowning wasn't like in the movies, and it was painful bringing back up the amount of water Ranboo had breathed in.

"Oh my god." George muttered, bringing his glowing hands over Ranboo's chest in an attempt to help him despite the fact that he was running on empty, his powers almost completely depleted from exhaustion. "Oh my god."

Connor choked on a sob as he watched Ranboo's chest move up and down, George leaning over him with his hands glowing despite the fact that he looked exhausted.

Foolish had done it.

Ranboo was alive.

* * *

Purpled flinched as the shouting grew louder, Tubbo curling in closer to his side and Tommy turning up the volume on the TV. 

"We can't just wipe his memory Phil! He's going to remember at some point and he'll be distraught that-"

"Eret I'm sorry but we don't know what impact it might have on him or his powers if he wakes up remembering. What if he strikes out in panic or something happens? Why can't we just save him from the trauma? Phil is right."

"He's going to be traumatised either way." Dream cut in, barely contained anger seeping through his voice.

"I refuse to do it. I'm not wiping his memory." Eret said stubbornly, Niki staying silent.

"I can do it."

"Schlatt we already said no, we're not wiping his memor-"

"And you can stop me?"

"Schlatt-"

"What are you going to do? Get the others to restrain me?"

"Schlatt you're not doing it."

There was silence. 

A silent tear rolled down Purpled's cheek and Tubbo squeezed his hand tightly.

"Will Foolish be okay?" Niki asked, quietly.

"We hope so. He ripped some of his long life off to revive Ranboo... that has to do some damage." Phil said, his voice solemn. "He literally removed some of his power and gave it to Ranboo."

"He's passed out upstairs... hopefully all he needs is rest."

"He's just burnt out, he should recover fine..." George added, his voice quiet and uncertain. "So should Ranboo. He needs rest too."

More silence.

This time Tommy moved from where he had been curled in a ball on the other end of the couch to come and sit with them, tucking himself into Purpled's other side with a glare that said if he made fun of him he'd end him.

The three had been kicked out of the room where the discussion was happening, but it didn't mean they couldn't hear the others debating whether they should wipe Ranboo's memory or not. 

"Do you think Ranboo will have some of Foolish's powers now?"

"Let's hope not."

Suddenly Sapnap snapped, "I need to get out of here. This house is fucking suffocating right now."

Purpled could hear the heat in his voice and knew he was finding it difficult to stay in control, probably tired from everything that had happened today.

"Me too." Dream snapped, then he stormed out and towards the room that Purpled and the other two were hiding away in, warping into a different reality before he reached them.

They heard Sapnap stamp past the room followed by lighter, more hurried footsteps, probably George following him to get him to strengthen his control before he hurt someone or himself.

Wilbur and Punz entered the room a few minutes later, both looking stressed and upset as they talked.

Punz spotted the three curled on the couch, and sighed. "You three weren't supposed to hear any of that, that's why Phil made you all leave."

"Why? Because we're younger than you? By what... months?" Tommy sassed back, curling closer into Purpled's side subconsciously.

Purpled could feel the family they'd built breaking apart at the seams, years of carefully built trust and friendship fraying away in a matter of hours.

"Tommy-" Wilbur sighed, falling onto a different couch.

"He's not wrong." Purpled interrupted. "Plus it wouldn't have mattered where we were anyway, you guys weren't exactly quiet while arguing over wiping Ranboo's memory."

They could all hear the bitterness in his tone.

Tubbo snuggled closer in his sleep, having passed out a few minutes beforehand after crying a damp patch onto Purpled's hoodie.

"It's not that we want to do it, it's that we might have to... we're trying to save him from the pain that he's going to feel when he wakes up... he's going to be traumatised forever if he-" Punz tried explaining.

Purpled felt Tommy finally snap.

"HE'S GOING TO BE IN PAIN EITHER WAY!" He shouted, eyes flashing with lightning as he leapt to his feet, fed up of their slightly flawed reasoning. 

Tubbo awoke with a start, clinging to Purpled even tighter than before, eyes wide and vulnerable in his half asleep state.

"Tommy," Wilbur said sadly, watching as his younger brother started to cry. "Tommy it's not that simple. It's not black and white."

Traces of Tommy's abilities were collecting in his tears, causing them to have a pearl like glow as they seared tear tracks down his cheeks.

Tommy's hands started fizzing with electricity, sparks flying between his fingers as the entire house was suddenly plunged into darkness, the TV cutting off as a large bolt of lightening forked across the sky.

The only light was now the moon through the open blinds casting a ghostly white light over the room, washing Tommy's pale skin even paler. 

Tommy was losing control.

Punz and Wilbur were watching him carefully, Tubbo clung even tighter to Purpled as they watched the other teen become overtaken by emotion and exhaustion, everything that had happened today finally catching up with him. Phil and Techno had come rushing into the room when they heard Tommy shout, the others who had been talking with them peering through the doorway so as not to crowd the teenagers inside. 

Tommy was a ticking bomb right now, one wrong move... one wrong word would fry them all.

"Tommy, keep it under control." Phil whispered quietly, taking a step towards him and stopping immediately when the sparks surrounding Tommy only intensified, starting to whiz through his hair and zip up and down his skin. 

Pale blue sparks were now dancing in the air around the teen, sparks of orange flame flashing every now and then as the lighting scar he had gained when he was thirteen started glowing under his shirt, bright light seeping through the white fabric. His already vibrant blue eyes were now glowing with power, emitting white light as Tommy's teenage body trembled with barely contained power.

Tommy was becoming unstable, the mental exhaustion too much for him to try and rein in his powers, which were now running wild, destroying the boy from the inside and soon to be destroying everyone else here as well, if the way Tommy's veins were rippling with raw, undiluted magic, pulsing and glowing blue before going dark again were any indication. 

That was one of the first signs of a complete burnout, something they were always warned about but none of them had ever experienced in the way Tommy was now. There were two different types of burnouts. The type Foolish (and George no matter how much he denied it) were currently experiencing, the painful and uncomfortable one that happened when they used too much of their power in one go. And the type Tommy was about to be experiencing, the life endangering type where their powers became too much and they got overstimulated by raw magic. The more powerful you were the more dangerous these type of burnouts were... and Tommy was a bar four, and a high level one at that too... almost a bar five. And at sixteen, his teenage body was not yet fully developed enough to be able to hold the amount of power that he had unintentionally sucked out of the area, probably causing one of the biggest power outages the area had ever experienced, and he was now well on his way to a burnout...

Frankly, everyone looked terrified, none of them had ever had this type of burnout before and nobody knew what to do.

Tubbo was crying again, and Purpled felt like doing the same.

_Was their group of five about to become three?_

_They had said that Ranboo would be fine... but he was currently passed out upstairs and Tommy was losing control..._

_Were Tubbo, Fundy and Purpled about to-_

Tommy's mouth opened in a silent scream as he collapsed to his knees, lightning now rolling in waves over his body as his trembles became more violent.

Phil was crying and shouting, trying to reach Tommy despite the fact that Techno was restraining him, his face also wet with tears as he restrained the struggling Phil.

Tommy was crying too, tears of lighting falling from his bent head and onto the floor, occasionally hitting his knees and being absorbed by the white light sizzling up and down his body.

It was an odd parallel to how Foolish and Ranboo had looked earlier... except with lighting instead of golden light.

Wilbur shakily stood, dodging the arm that Punz reached out, knowing what he was going to try and do and trying to stop him.

He stepped towards the teenager, ignoring the gasps of fear that came from the onlookers as he steadied his breathing, pulling his powers to the surface.

_For Tommy._

He stepped forwards into the lightning swirling around the carpet.

_One step._

Tommy started convulsing on his side, the lightning growing more intense.

_Two steps._

The lightning and sparks started to flow around Wilbur. His face was completely and utterly concentrated, his fists clenched tightly.

_Three steps._

His nails were digging so hard into his palms that they drew blood, grounding him.

_Four steps._

Wilbur crouched down next to Tommy, ignoring how the sparks felt as they burnt him.

_For Tommy, his little brother._

He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around him, feeling the electricity and the pain Tommy was feeling from an overload of power flow into his own body.

God it hurt.

It hurt like a motherfucking train had just hit him.

He was burning up from the inside out. Ash was pouring through his lungs, lightning was frying his skin, sparks of electricity flaying his skin down to the bone.

Or at least that's what it felt like as Wilbur absorbed the majority of Tommy's burnout.

In reality, Wilbur's face just became one of pain similar to Tommy's as he was swallowed up by the electricity plaguing Tommy's body, sparks starting to circle him and then disappear and slowly lowering the amount of power Tommy was overloaded with. 

The boy's head was lolling onto Wilbur's shoulder as he started to lose consciousness, electricity dancing over both their bodies.

Wilbur only held him tighter, feeling every second of it as his own ability started to absorb Tommy's burnout.

He couldn't see anything anymore, his vision going white from lightning and his hearing cutting out.

Wilbur wondered if he'd pushed it too far, if trying to absorb Tommy's bar four powers with his level three abilities was going to kill him.

He felt light headed as the pain increased, Tommy passing out against his shoulder as Wilbur silently screamed, feeling like his skin was being flayed from his body by lightning.

And then suddenly all the electricity that Tommy had built up cut out, all the sparks that had been whipping up a storm in the room dying and disappearing, the wind that had been forming around the pair at the centre dissipating with them.

Wilbur and Tommy slumped in the centre of the room, both of them passed out on the floor.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then Phil finally broke free of Techno's grip and rushed to his adopted sons, moving his boys' heads into his lap and checking that both were still breathing. He let out a broken sob of relief.

"They're alive. Oh thank God they're alive."

"Did Wilbur just... mute Tommy's burnout with his powers?" Sam asked, shakily levitating the couch out of the way to make room for more people in the room. "I didn't know he could do that..."

"Apparently being able to absorb and temporarily disable someone's power also means you can prevent a burnout." Techno muttered.

"We need George. Where's George?" Puffy suddenly asked, looking around frantically. "Where is he?"

"I'm here." George appeared next to her with Sapnap behind him. "I don't think I can heal right now, but I can check to make sure they're alright."

George yawned, his eyes drooping in exhaustion. Sapnap frowned in annoyance and concern. George was completely burnt-out, why was everyone making him use his power still? He was going to hurt himself...

George hovered next to Phil and the two passed out teens, checking them before confirming that both were now just passed out, most likely from burning out before passing out himself and being caught by Sapnap, who had been stood behind him.

That made the total of passed out teenagers five. Four from being burnt out and one from literally being revived from the dead. That was definitely a new record. 

Sam and Puffy helped Phil put Tommy, Wilbur and George in bed, Sam insisting on making the other teens who weren't unconscious hot chocolate while Puffy and Phil tended to the others, checking on them. Bad and Skeppy had briefly dropped by to give them the news that school was closed until the power was back up, meaning that they had at least a day to get everything together again. At least one good thing came out of Tommy's meltdown...

Sam, Techno, Sapnap, Purpled and Punz were sat in the kitchen. Tubbo had long since gone to bed, Quackity had also "gone to bed" (they all knew that he'd gone to sit by George until he woke up but none of them said anything), Eret had left with Bad and Skeppy, deciding stay at Ponk's for the night with Hannah (Bad was driving him there), and Schlatt had disappeared into Ranboo's room with Phil. They all knew what was happening in there right now, but they ignored it. Niki had fallen asleep next to Wilbur's bed and Dream was still missing, having not been seen since he disappeared into a different reality. 

Purpled was sat at the kitchen island with his right hand curled around his mug, listening to Punz and Sapnap argue as Sam and Techno whispered to each other about something. He wasn't drinking the hot drink, instead manipulating it so that the liquid formed small floating hearts and water droplets, curving it in small arcs through his fingers, twisting his left hand as he played with the drink. 

That was why when Karl literally appeared out of thin air with wide eyes and messy hair and a loud, "Oh!", he lost concentration and the liquid dropped, burning his hand and causing him to curse under his breath as he summoned the water from Sam's glass as the man hurried towards the teenager that had just collapsed on the floor, creating a ball of floating water and concentrating on the temperature, making it drop drastically as he stuck his burnt hand in it, sighing in relief as the heat in his hand was soothed by the water.

"Karl?" Sapnap questioned, concern clear in his tired voice as he turned away from his argument with Punz, watching as Sam helped the other boy to his feet, an arm on his shoulder as he helped the teen to the kitchen table.

"What time is it?" Karl asked.

"Almost midnight." Punz replied.

Karl frowned, "No. What's the exact time?"

"11pm, Tuesday the 16th February, 2021." Purpled interjected, fed up of waiting for the idiots to catch on that Karl genuinely had no idea what day it was or even what year it was.

"Almost four days..." Karl muttered to himself, running a distressed hand through his already messy hair.

"Almost four days? What do you mean Karl? What are you talking about?" Techno asked in a slightly frustrated voice.

Sapnap and Purpled glared at him.

"Dude give him a minute, clearly he's been time travelling or some shit again." Sapnap warned, his tone filled with fire and heat and daring Techno to test him.

Purpled didn't doubt that Techno would win that fight, but he knew Sapnap would give him a run for his money, most likely getting in a few good hits before Techno would win. 

Techno smartly decided to be quiet. They didn't need more unconscious or injured teenagers in the house today.

"Hey! Is that my water?" Sam suddenly cried, noticing that Purpled was sat with his slightly pink hand encompassed in a ball of water.

Purpled shrugged, "I burnt my hand."

Sam sighed, "The tap is literally right the- never mind."

"You okay Karl?" Punz asked, because Karl was tugging lighting on the ends of his hair as he paced, having stood up now he stopped feeling light headed from the time travel. "What's up?"

"It's Ranboo. He's going to run." Karl replied stopping pacing to answer. "In four days he's going to discover his power and he's going to run and we're not going to be able to stop him."

The atmosphere of the room changed instantly, everyone becoming tense.

Four days.

"And I time travelled back before I could find out what his power was," Karl continued, his voice showing how annoyed at himself he was. "But I know that he was powerful, really powerful. He somehow knocked Dream out. George was healing a cut on his head or something..."

Purpled almost lost concentration again, his floating ball of water dropping and losing it's shape for a second before he caught it again.

Ranboo knocked Dream out?

Did he use his power or did he just get lucky?

Fundy had already identified that he was powerful, at least a bar four at this point... but Dream was a bar six, plus he was one of the best fighters they had... and if Ranboo knocked him out...

Shit.

Four days.

Four days until Ranboo discovered his power.

Four days until everything went to shit once again... not that they knew that at the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote almost all of this chapter while listening to Your City Gave Me Asthma on repeat... can you tell??
> 
> Hannah:  
> Level 1  
> Nature Manipulator 
> 
> Ponk:  
> Level 1  
> Healer  
> (Mostly Mental Healing Abilities)
> 
> Wilbur:  
> Level 3  
> Ability Manipulator/Absorber
> 
> Punz:  
> Level 3  
> Phantom/Mass Manipulator Abilities  
> (E.G Can Disappear And Walk Through Walls)
> 
> Also I had an idea but I don't know if you guys would like it... after I finish this book, how would you guys feel about a sort of prequel with a chronological ordered set of chapters with one chapter dedicated to each person's arrival to the community and their power awakening? It would include everyone in the book (so there will probably be a lot of chapters) and lead up to exactly when Ranboo joins and this story begins... I dunno, I just liked the idea :P


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ranboo begins to put the pieces together, everyone else recovers from an eventful few days...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not only did I spend like half of Friday night and basically all of my Saturday writing this (and I guess 2 hours of my Sunday morning??), the big sad hit half way through and told me to go to be unmotivated and numb and shit but I said "fuck you big sad" and listened to Corpse music at full volume in my headphones for at least two hours on repeat (because his music scratches my brain some type of way) and drank a Monster and then finished it for you once the big sad became more of a small sad... that's how important you guys are and how much all your nice comments motivate me. Make sure to take care of yourselves, try to eat something today if you haven't yet maybe just an apple or something small if you can't eat something big, if you not then that's alright, there's always tomorrow. Drink some water and look after yourselves <3
> 
> TW: Possible self harm triggers so please please be careful  
> (Been there, done that and I love you, we're gonna be okay <3)
> 
> Sorry in advance for any possible typos, will go back and triple check another time.

Ranboo woke in the middle of the night in a hot sweat.

His hair was sweaty and plastered to his forehead, his body felt weak and it hurt much more than it should have to move.

It felt like there was a foreign presence in his body and for a split second Ranboo could have sworn he felt an extra heartbeat beating alongside his own before it synced and disappeared. _What the fu- frick?_

Ranboo blinked, bringing a hand to his chest and hovering it over his heart where he had definitely felt two heartbeats a second before... he frowned in confusion, _he was too tired for this_ , and the ceiling glitched, morphing and rippling in an odd way, as if it were melting. 

He blinked again and it was gone.

_That was new._

Ranboo was too tired to think about it now though... he'd try and make sense of it later. He was probably seeing things again, still half asleep.

He had had the most terrifying nightmare, Ranboo remembered, his body shivering slightly as he remembered it.

What day was it again? 

Uhhh... Tuesday maybe?

Ranboo wasn't sure, the last thing he remembered was leaving school with Purpled and Fundy after science class. He remembered that he had meant to do his psychology homework when he got back but he couldn't remember whether he'd done it or not, the last thing he was sure he remembered was getting off of the school bus after dodging a paper aeroplane that Tommy had thrown made out of his English homework (that he had just failed) while Hannah shouted as she tried to save her calculus homework, which Dream had just sabotaged with Karl's Monster drink, causing both victims to pout as Dream saluted and legged it off the bus, sprinting past Ranboo and into his house (across the street from Phil's), leaving Karl annoyed at the loss of his monster as he followed Sapnap off the bus and Hannah desperately trying to salvage the remains of the soggy sheet.

_Uhhhh..._

... Why didn't he remember what he did after that?

Ranboo was confused.

What had happened?

Ranboo hadn't had an episode where he blanked out in years... surely he hadn't relapsed now... no no no... if he had he would have written it down. 

Or would he?

He pushed his covers off of him and swung his legs over the edge of his bed, leaning forwards and resting his head on his arms for a second when he went lightheaded. 

His throat hurt, it felt raw and it burnt to swallow, like he'd been screaming in his sleep.

Ranboo used to do that sometimes when he was younger... but he hadn't in years and being as no one had come to check on him, he assumed that he hadn't been screaming despite the nightmare he'd had.

_Unless they just didn't care._

He hated how weak his legs felt when he pushed himself to his feet, temporarily going lightheaded once again, how they quivered and shook as he staggered towards the window seat with his memory book clutched to his chest tightly.

It was a cloudy night, the moon and stars smothered by a layer of smoky-grey clouds and making Ranboo feel like he was cut off from the universe and being forced to face reality. He hated it, he'd much rather stare at the endless night sky and the moon and the stars that hung there and wonder what it would be like to fly up there among them or if there was other life out there where maybe he'd fit in better. Ranboo was certain there was, anyone who said otherwise was just stupid. He didn't think that aliens existed like they did in movies... that would be stupid, but he definitely thought they existed. Sometimes he pondered if humans were the aliens and we were all just too self absorbed to realise it, thinking that the entire universe revolves around us... some days Ranboo definitely felt like the alien amongst the humans, and he wondered if that was something only he felt, if that was just him being him again.

Ranboo loved the night sky, it made him feel free. Anyone who didn't love the night sky and the stars was clearly too mentally stable to talk to him in his opinion, clearly never having broken down at 3am before sitting on your window ledge and staring at the stars, letting them comfort you as the peacefulness of the night wrapped around you like a comforting blanket, cool air lapping at your face as you sat there. Ranboo thought that maybe the only thing that was better than watching the night sky was sitting next to an open window wrapped in a blanket as it rained, the unique smell of petrichor permeating through the air. And when it rained at night? Even better.

He'd never met anyone else who preferred night over day and rain over sun though, so Ranboo thought he must be the only one. It was just another thing that made him that weird foster kid who used to come into school with dark circles under his eyes from looking at the sky all night and sit without lunch at the lunch tables while everyone else ate or sometimes turn up to class with bruises from "falling down the stairs". And so when Ranboo would fall asleep in class after spending the whole night awake and get sent to the Principle's office, he would get in trouble. Just another reason for the parents to keep their kids away from "that odd foster kid that is nothing but trouble".

He cracked open the cover of his memory book, the spine of the book already worn and creased, flicking through the pages gently with his long fingers, absentmindedly rubbing his fingers over the deep grooves on the hard cover that spelled out "DO NOT READ!!" in his childlike chicken scratch handwriting from when he was younger. Pages that had been ripped out and carefully placed back in by Ranboo's past self almost fell out multiple times and he had to flick back to find their correct place to put them back in.

He found the last page he had written on that hadn't been sabotaged.

_16th December 2018_

_I ~~almost successfully~~ ran away again today but Lucas snitched and they found me before I could get ~~to the bus stop~~ far._

_Mrs Garcia hit me and said I was ungrateful. ~~I want to tell someone but they won't believe me~~ I'll have to lie to school if they ask about the bruises ~~again~~._

~~_My math teacher keeps giving me worried looks. I don't like it, what if he finds out? He won't though because I'll lie..._ ~~

_Mr Garcia says I don't get food for three days and I have extra chores. He looked sad when he told me and I think Mrs Garcia ~~might hit him too~~ is mean to him, but he didn't try to stop his wife when she hit me, ~~but I feel bad for him anyway~~ so I don't feel sorry for him._

_Lucas said he'd burn my things if I snitched that he was forcing me to come to the lake with him... ~~I'm scared to go~~ I don't want to go again, not after last time. _

_He ~~threatened me with fire again~~ forced me to drink with them ~~my head feels weird now~~ even though I don't like it and then pushed me into the water and laughed when I cried because I was scared._

_Lucas and his friends ~~scare me~~ are cruel._

_Friends:_

~~_Alice Johnson_ ~~

~~_Ben Davis_ ~~

_Kirsty_

_Not sure:_

_Ben Davis_

~~_Elijah Jones_ ~~

_Stay Away From:_

_Lucas Garcia_

_Lucas's friends_

_Elijah Jones_

_Alice Johnson_

_Kirsty's brother_

That had been one of his last entries.

After that there was nothing, just a few ripped out pages that he knew had been missing for years, kids from past foster homes having found it funny to destroy them in front of him while he scrabbled to save them desperately.

There was no entry from yesterday, nothing that told him what he had done.

Ranboo's breathing became heavier as he tried to prevent the panic he was feeling from taking control of his senses.

His nightmare... what if that was what had actually happened?

No. 

No that was just a dream he had had.

_You stupid idiot Ranboo, you're going insane._

_But it would make sense._

_No it doesn't._

_But-_

_Shut up!_

Ranboo put his head between his knees, his panting breath too loud in the quiet house.

Was he relapsing?

He hadn't had conversations with himself in a long time...

The cushion beneath him glitched and slowly began to morph until suddenly Ranboo was no longer on his window seat, but sat on his doorstep back in the city.

_Too many emotions..._

_Too much..._

He didn't notice at first, his eyes screwed shut as he rocked back and forth, resisting the strong urge to scratch repeatedly at his arm with his long nails, knowing that while he would feel better while he was doing it, it didn't help in the long run. 

_But the pain would distract... like an outlet... he-_

_You've been clean for so long._

_Almost forty days now._

_It only makes things worse._

_You only feel guilty afterwards._

_You promised Dog that you wouldn't._

So he didn't notice that the soft cushion had morphed into hard stone and the walls of his bedroom had become the bricks of the abandoned alleyway he had lived in for months, the sounds of silent country air becoming muted city sounds, drunks shouting and jeering, and traffic in the distance with engines revving and the occasional honking sound followed by squealing brakes.

In fact, Ranboo only noticed that he wasn't in his room anymore when he heard a familiar meowing and felt fur that was surprisingly soft for a stray cat make contact with his hand, familiar vibrations soothing him as the black cat started to purr, pushing her head into his hand lovingly.

_Dog._

_His cat._

Ranboo had found Dog three days after successfully running away.

Some kids had been throwing stones at her and she was hiding behind a bin in fear the first time he saw the skinny stray. Ranboo could see her crouching and shivering with her ears flat against her skull as he watched from a distance. He hadn't stepped in at the time, the kids all being bigger than him and having strength in numbers, even after living on the streets for only three days Ranboo was clever and intuitive enough to know which fights he could win and which ones he would most definitely lose. So he waited until they got bored, eventually lumbering away from the area, fed up of waiting for the small, skinny cat to emerge. 

Once they were gone Ranboo had crept closer to check if the cat was alright, surprised when she didn't run away or try to attack him, instead hissing at him and keeping her claws out when he got too close to warn him to give her space. He noticed she had one claw missing, like it had been ripped out in a fight maybe. He hadn't wanted to scare her so he sat a few metres away with the cat until she stopped hissing and relaxed slightly, although she still wouldn't come close. Ranboo didn't know what cats ate having never owned one or even had a friend who owned one before and he didn't have much food on him but he had some left over chicken sandwhich he had been saving for tomorrow. So he ripped a small bit of chicken from that and held it out to the wary cat. She was so skinny that he could see her ribs though her fur and it made him unbearably sad and angry at whoever had left her... assuming that was how she became a stray.

Dog had given him a look that basically said she wasn't going to eat it from his hand so he placed it on the floor near him but far enough away that she wouldn't be scared. It took a few minutes but eventually she had crept to it and sniffed it suspiciously, wolfing it down in a matter of seconds when she deemed it acceptable. To his immense surprise she had then decided that Ranboo was obviously someone who wouldn't hurt her, sniffing around him for more food. He didn't have more to give her, aware that he still needed some for himself, but this didn't seem to bother her and she started following him around the city in the days afterwards, always returning to his doorstep at night and curling up next to him in a cardboard box (that he had left out for her) while he slept, keeping one eye open as if to protect the human she had claimed from the rest of the world.

Ranboo had named her Dog after a week of the cat following him around because he thought it was funny... because she was a cat... and Dog seemed to approve of the name too, purring when he had suggested it. The two had bonded and become a pair during their time on the streets, Dog always calming Ranboo down when he was panicked and Ranboo doing his best to feed her and keep her safe. 

"Dog?" Ranboo whispered quietly as the cat rubbed herself along his legs.

He didn't understand, surely he must be dreaming because it wasn't possible that he was here in the city after being at Phil's house seconds ago.

Dog meowed at him, her meow the same high pitch it always was. Ranboo assumed she was just a very talkative cat, because once she was comfortable with him she was always meowing at him. If he could speak cat then he imagined they would have some interesting conversations.

She took it upon herself to place herself in between his arm and his leg, giving him a piercing look with her pale blue eyes as she squished her soft body in the small gap, her bum and back legs sticking out in an undignified way because she wasn't quite small enough despite being a very very tiny cat.

Ranboo knew she was telling him that it was alright, that he hadn't done it and she wasn't going to let him do what his brain was currently crying out for him to do, the pet the only thing distracting him from the urge to scratch at the skin until it was red and raw.

"Thank you Dog." Ranboo said quietly, deciding to focus on whatever the hell was happening later and just enjoy whatever dream was happening now, while his cat was still here. Dog meowed at him and gently headbutted him, making Ranboo melt inside as he softly stroked her fur, tears slowly pouring down his face. He missed her. He missed Dog and when he woke up she'd be gone...

He scooped the skinny cat into his arms and she started purring as Ranboo petted her, the teen leaning back against the wall of the alleyway as the cat tucked her head in the crook of his neck.

Ranboo closed his eyes, the feeling of Dog's purring against his body sending relaxing vibrations through his chest and making him sleepy.

"Oi! What're you doing down here? Piss off kid, this is my place." 

Ranboo jumped, his eyes snapping open as he sprang to his feet, Dog hissing in his arms as her tail went bottlebrush.

He was lucky his instincts were still finetuned to living on the streets because milliseconds after he had moved, a empty glass bottle shattered where his head had been.

Ranboo started panicking. 

_Crap._

For some reason it hadn't occurred to him that moving away from his alleyway for a week would mean it got taken over by someone else...

"S-sorry. I can j-just go..." Ranboo stammered nervously, hoping that Dog would stop making an angry hissing noise at the clearly drunk man blocking their exit.

He was just dreaming though right? So... so he didn't need to worry because this wasn't real... but it sure felt real...

"Oh no you don't kid, I want to know where the hell you and the manky cat came from, I've been sat at the end of that alley all night and you ain't passed me." The unknown man spat, advancing on Ranboo and Dog and backing them even further towards the wall. 

Dog started yowling and Ranboo winced.

"Dog please shhh." He whispered, Dog complying immediately and went back to hissing instead, her tail swishing from side to side in an aggravated way as she glared at the man from the relative safety of Ranboo's arms.

_How dare he throw a glass bottle at her human? She'd scratch out his eyes if Ranboo gave her the chance..._

"I uh..." Ranboo stuttered. How did he answer? He didn't even know how he'd got here.

"Spit it out." The man said, now close enough for Ranboo to smell the beer on his breath and see his yellowing teeth.

"I-"

"SPIT IT OUT!" He roared, grabbing Ranboo's arm and causing Ranboo to jump in fear and surprise and Dog to yowl and swipe a paw at his unshaven face, scratching his stubbly cheek with her claws and leaving a long red slash that had him stumbling backwards in a combination of surprise and pain.

The man's eyes lit up in drunken rage, "You motherfucker." He hissed, "I gave you a chance..."

He started lumbering towards them and Ranboo froze in complete and utter panic.

Just as the man was within arms distance, the alleyway suddenly glitched out and Ranboo fell from one of the wooden beams in the ceiling of Phil's house in his room, losing his grip on Dog as he fell. He landed on the floor with a loud thud, knocking the back of his head against the floor and immediately passing out, Dog landing on her feet next to him, her tail still bottlebrush, and immediately dashing to hide under his bed when she heard multiple pairs of footsteps rushing up the stairs.

Phil and Techno burst into the room, followed by Dream and Sam a few steps behind them.

They spotted Ranboo lying unconscious on the floor in the centre of the room but none of them saw the black cat hiding in the shadows under his bed or the book that had been dropped on the floor next to the open window as the only light in the room was from the moon that was still hidden behind clouds, meaning the room was practically pitch black. As the power was still out they could only just see the outline of Ranboo's passed out body on the floor as it was, they stood no chance of seeing things they weren't looking for... like a memory book and a semi-stray cat.

"Did he faint or something?" Techno asked with a frown.

Sam shrugged, "Maybe he woke up and tried to walk but fainted halfway to the door?"

Everyone seemed to agree with this logic as it was the most likely scenario.

"Well at least we know now he isn't dead." Techno muttered, earning a slap on the arm from Phil.

Techno bent down to pick Ranboo up off of the floor only to be beaten to it by Sam carefully levitating him into his bed, making sure to support his head as well as the rest of his body. Phil carefully tucked Ranboo's covers around him and the four left a few minutes later, leaving the bedroom door open a crack.

Dog watched them leave before emerging and jumped onto the bed, curling up on top of the covers next to Ranboo but keeping one eye open just like always.

_She needed to protect him. Normal people couldn't float other people..._

Ranboo woke up a few hours later.

The first thing he noticed was that he was in Phil's house again, back in his bed. The second was that there was no Dog but there was an oddly shaped dent next to him in the bed. The third was that his head hurt like a bi- hurt a lot... and his memory book was on the floor by the window seat.

He had had some weird dreams last night... hazy memories of a nightmare where he drowned and was revived and the ceiling melting and like teleporting to the city or something crazy like that floating back to him.

Ranboo vividly remembered that last one where he somehow ended up in the city again with Dog. Ranboo felt like crying when he realised that it must have been a dream, because there was no Dog anywhere and it wasn't possible for him to have gotten there and back by himself anyway... _let alone in the impossible way you did in your dream_...

Gingerly unfolding himself from his foetal position in his bed, he realised that his long legs were dead from the position he'd been sleeping in and his body was still sore for a reason he couldn't remember. His head throbbed painfully as he bent down and picked his fallen memory book up off of the floor, gathering the pages that had fallen out of it and hiding it under his mattress again. 

It was only once he had changed out of his oddly damp hoodie (Ranboo tried to ignore that it was the one that he'd been wearing in his nightmare) and into new clothes that he realised that there was cat fur on the hoodie he had been wearing and that the oddly shaped dent on his bed covers was cat shaped... and his door was open a crack when he knew he'd definitely closed it last night. He never slept with the door open if he had the choice, it was one more difference between him and others. It gave him time to hide if he needed to, and he couldn't understand how people slept with their doors open... were they not scared like some random demon or something would attack them in the night? That had been a big one of Ranboo's fears when he was younger, something that he hadn't been able to become unafraid of no matter how old he got and how ridiculous he knew it was... maybe it was just him being a messed up foster kid again.

It wasn't possible that Dog was here... right?

He quietly left his room and crept quietly down the stairs, surprised to find that the majority of the household was seemingly awake already despite the early hours of the morning. That hadn't been what Ranboo's other experiences in the mornings of the house had been like... was something happening he didn't know about?

He passed Tommy and Tubbo's room and heard them muttering inside, three voices that sounded like Purpled, Fundy and Foolish inside too. When he passed George's room he could hear Sapnap and Quackity inside talking to him about being more careful or something like that. Technoblade, Wilbur and Niki were talking in the kitchen, he could hear their voices even from the bottom of the stairs.

He heard Phil, Sam and Dream's voices coming from the living room and he paused, blatantly eavesdropping as he shivered and hugged his jumper closer to himself nervously, wondering why there were no lights on. It was slightly freaky.

"Where did it come from?" Asked Phil's voice, sounding tired.

"Callahan said she's a girl and that she wouldn't tell him." Dream replied. "Apparently she just wants chicken."

"Do we know whose she is?"

"No, she just appeared."

A familiar meow sounded through the room.

Ranboo froze.

_No way._

"She's very vocal isn't she?" Sam yawned. "Do you think if we found her some chicken she'd be more quiet?"

Ranboo rounded the corner of the room, his curiosity getting the better of him, and his mouth dropped open in surprise when he saw Dog prowling around the room, rubbing herself all over the couches and meowing loudly as Phil and Dream watched in confusion, another teenager in a reindeer onesie who he didn't know sat on a beanbag by the window with a small whiteboard next to him and Sam lying on one of the couches with a cushion pressed to his face. _Well it was slightly odd seeing the guidance councillor lying on the couch in a way that suggested he was completely exhausted_...

"Dog?" Ranboo gasped, causing her to meow and strut over to him, happily rubbing herself around his ankles and purring.

Her person was awake.

_How was she here?_

Ranboo didn't understand... surely his dream hadn't been real.

"Pretty sure that's a cat." Sam mumbled, but it was muffled by the cushion on his face so it was unintelligible. 

Dream looked concerned, and exchanged a confused glance with Phil as the teenager Ranboo didn't know stared at him and Dog, "Errr, no Ranboo... that's a cat..."

"No. Her name is Dog." Ranboo grinned happily, crouching down to pet her.

The teen he didn't know smirked, then doubled over in silent laughter as Dream and Phil's confusion only grew and Sam moved the cushion off his face, sitting up and staring with the most done expression Ranboo had ever seen.

He was clearly over the shit that happened in this household. Apparently a cat named Dog was his thirteenth reason... or all thirteen of them.

"Errr... is she yours?" Phil eventually asked after a few minutes of watching the cat purr loudly as she relaxed in Ranboo's arm, rubbing her head against his cheek and making him beam happily.

"I guess." Ranboo shrugged, before turning to leave, taking Dog with him.

"Why did you call her Dog?" Dream asked as the teen was leaving.

"Thought it was funny, and it is." Ranboo called over his shoulder, then disappeared up the stairs back towards his bedroom, the small, skinny cat following behind him.

Callahan was still laughing silently at Dream and Phil's confused expressions.

He scribbled "She is still thinking about chicken very loudly" on his whiteboard but was ignored, making him huff and rub it off, sulking.

"So I guess Ranboo is properly awake now, and seemingly not remembering what happened..." Phil muttered, rubbing a tired hand over his face. "Did we leave his door open when we left him last night? Maybe the cat got out then... do you think he's been hiding her in his room since he got here?"

Callahan wrote "The cat is called Dog" and held it up with a grin on his face, this time not being ignored and causing Phil to give him a look.

"No, he seemed surprised to see her." Dream said, falling into the couch with an arm thrown across his face and almost squashing Sam, who glared at him and wacked him with his cushion. "Oh come on Sam, fuck off."

"I'll take away your phone if you talk like that." Sam grumbled.

"You're not my dad Sam, piss off." Dream complained, making Sam grin and ruffle his hair fondly.

"Did you mention something about wanting to dye your hair at some point?" Sam suddenly asked, seeming to recall a conversation he and Dream had had about dying his hair over dinner one time while Karl and Callahan were fighting over pizza, Karl eventually winning and causing Callahan to flip him off, to which Karl responded to by telling him just to talk if he had something to say because he didn't hear any askers. The other three adults in the house had been at Bad and Skeppy's place that day, and Minx had been looking for an apartment to move into with Niki, Hannah and Eret so she hadn't been there either.

"Yeah I wanted to dye it green." Dream yawned, just as tired as Phil and Sam after hopping through different realities and then staying up with them as well after an anxiety riddled day of Ranboo staying unconscious despite the fact that Foolish, George, Tommy and Wilbur had all woken up at various points throughout the day before being forced back into bed to rest by Phil. Dream must have been up for almost a solid 48 hours now... almost certainly more. He hadn't slept since Monday night... it was now Thursday morning and he wasn't used to going long without sleep, his abilities were starting to play up slightly. "But not ugly green like George dyed Sapnap's hair, more like dark green."

Sapnap had chased George around the house with a fork when he found out George had been the one who put dye in his shampoo (luckily Ranboo had been hiding away in his room or he would have been terrified) and forced him to change it back using his healing powers while holding the fork to his throat. Luckily Ranboo hadn't questioned how Sapnap's hair was fixed when he saw him, probably assuming he had a dyed it back or the dye had been one of those ones that wash out after a day or two.

Sam and Dream left a few hours later, returning to their house across the street with Sapnap, Quackity and George in tow to check on Karl (and force Dream to sleep because he looked exhausted), who was distressed after finding out the future and Sam had sent home to try and relax, ordering him to try sleep or at least watch something to get his mind off what would be happening in just under three days time. The boy had been trying to force himself to have visions, something that never worked and never would, just causing Karl to be even more tired and stressed.

Sam knew he was struggling with insomnia again and that he had been drinking more Monsters than usual to give himself energy so he could operate despite his lack of sleep, which probably didn't help him mentally or help him control his powers. The other night when he had gotten up to get a drink at 4am, he had walked past Karl's room to discover that the light was still on (although it was low) and he could hear him on the phone to Corpse, trying to muffle his giggles with a pillow as they talked. Both boys struggled with sleep... Sam struggled to help them sometimes and was often consumed by guilt because of it.

When they got in, he was surprised to find Karl passed out on the sofa and Antfrost sat near him, using his power to keep the room cool, sending air flowing around as the fans were broken from the lack of power. Puffy was half asleep at the kitchen island, resting her head on her hands with her eyelids drooping every so often. 

When the five entered the room, Ant looked up from his phone with a goofy smile on his face (probably texting Velvet) and Puffy held a finger to her lips, then signed that Karl hadn't been asleep long. Everyone who lived in the house knew sign language to a certain extent, Puffy, Sam and Velvet being almost fluent, everyone else close to it because of Callahan. Dream nodded to show he understood and Sapnap knew enough sign language to get the gist of it, also nodding his head, Quackity and George were just confused until they both got a text on their phone (from Dream) explaining. No one was speaking because they all knew Karl was a light sleeper, he always had been and any noise slightly above quiet or any voice no matter the volume would wake him up. Dream disappeared up to his bedroom, the other boys following as Sam and Puffy left the room quietly, leaving Ant behind to blow cool air around Karl as he went back to texting Velvet... who was literally upstairs in their room Sam discovered he found him grinning at his phone as they headed into Puffy's room to talk.

They also discovered that while Dream had disappeared into his room and immediately fallen asleep fully clothed in his hoodie and jeans on his bed, Sapnap and George hadn't followed him and were instead trying to break into Minx's (wisely locked) room (probably to sabotage something again as they were currently losing in their prank war) and had to pretend not to see, although they didn't promise not to tell Minx if she asked about them... much to the boys' horror. Quackity had gone and laid down in Karl's bed, exhausted after forcing himself to stay awake until George woke up, now that he knew Karl was asleep too, he could finally allow himself to close his eyes from exhaustion. It had been a rough couple of days... he was sure Karl wouldn't mind.

Meanwhile, at Bad and Skeppy's house, Bad was trying to get Minx, Schlatt, Eret, Jack, Charlie and Hannah to stop terrorizing him, practically begging them to go terrorise HBomb or Skeppy (who was upstairs in his room on the phone to Technoblade) instead... HBomb and Ponk's house was literally next door to his... some of the teens even lived there! But the teenagers were hellbent on making his life difficult, Bad having to pause his knife throwing practise every five seconds to yell "LANGUAGE!" in a voice that sounded like he was close to crying each time Schlatt or Minx or Jack shouted "FUCK YEAH BAD!" or "FUCKING BULLSEYE!" every time his knife hit the target in the tiny dot in the centre... which was every time. Not only that, but Rat was joining in too, barking joyfully along with the teen's swearing.

 _Betrayal_ , Bad thought to himself as he listened to her high pitched barks mix with the swears and felt like screaming at the chaos.

Hannah and Eret had stayed with them for the past two nights when Eret had arrived at HBomb and Ponk's to find Hannah on the verge of breaking down after being surrounded by the annoying males without Niki for a few days, the two needing the relative calm of Bad and Skeppy's house away from the chaos that was Hannah's house and the unsupportive and oppressive home Eret lived in, so those two had attracted the other four, which had led to Bad's current situation.

"Please!" Bad finally cried, dropping his knives and turning to where the teenagers had made themselves comfy on his floor. "Please go away!"

Eret was painting Charlie's nails green as he watched in fascination, having never had his nails painted before, Jack and Hannah had made a bet to see who could go the longest without blinking, both of their competitive sides showing (Hannah was winning 3-1 but Jack would never admit that), and Schlatt and Minx had made a bet to see who could get the last swear in before Bad finally broke. That was Schlatt and Minx was currently sulking as Schlatt gloated smugly, poking Minx in the side and making a sexual joke that earned him a slap which only made him grin wider, Minx trying to hide her smirk as well.

The teens finally left Bad alone, going to terrorise HBomb and Ponk at their place instead, Jack, Hannah, Eret and Charlie disappearing into Jack's room after Charlie said they couldn't go in his because he had accidentally exploded slime all over it yesterday... apparently Bad had come and cleaned it and now the room smelled strongly of chemicals, Foolish wisely kept his room locked when he wasn't there, not trusting anyone to not ruin his precious art projects or his PC while he wasn't there to protect them, and Hannah said her and Niki's room was off limits from heathens... which meant the boys. Minx and Schlatt went to annoy Ponk and HBomb, who were watching anime on the TV.

The next day, school was back up and running again (as the power had been restored in the night) much to the disappointment of the teens and the stress of the adults and Karl. The majority of the adults had jobs at the school but if Ranboo ran while they were all there or something happened that made him run... there wasn't much they could do and they couldn't just leave in the middle of classes. Eret, Schlatt and Niki couldn't wipe the entire school's memory no matter how fast they were, which meant if something went wrong then things could get messy...

Karl had said four days from Tuesday, today was Friday but you could never be too sure, the worst that could happen was that they were too prepared and Ranboo didn't run today, meaning the three adults who didn't work at the high school had waited around for nothing.

HBomb, Skeppy and Puffy were on high alert, ready to be called in if anything went wrong. Karl was tense, having constant flashes and glimpses of the next few days but never enough information to make a solid, prepared plan. Dream and Techno were also tense, knowing that they would probably be relied on to try and catch Ranboo before he got too far as the community's fastest and most skilled members (not including Tubbo... despite the fact he was fast realistically he couldn't effectively slow or disable Ranboo without accidentally hurting him or something).

Ranboo was surprised that he hadn't been questioned about Dog, or asked to get rid of her, Phil had merely gone out and bought chicken, cat food, and a small cat bed, leaving them outside his bedroom door for him. He was also extremely thankful he hadn't been questioned about her, because he didn't have an answer as to how she was here.

He had spent hours trying to figure out if his dream had been a dream or reality. Eventually he had started to wonder whether his drowning nightmare had been real or just a dream too, finally deciding to sneak out of the house at 2am and set off down the path he had taken in his dream with Eret and the other teens, becoming even more confused and panicked when it seemed familiar and having a full blown panic attack when he discovered the natural pool was as it had been in his nightmare except it was night now, staying there for hours until he managed to compose himself and sneak back to his room, not having noticed Purpled sat in the dark living room wrapped in a blanket and listening to music through headphones, frowning as he watched a distressed looking Ranboo creep into the house at 3:41am on a Friday morning.

Ranboo had eventually come to the conclusion that despite how insane it made him sound there was some weird mind control freaky stuff happening here... first the stuff that kept happening to him where his surroundings would glitch... it kept happening more and more frequently now and it had never happened before he came here as far that he could remember. Was it linked somehow? It had to be. It most definitely wasn't normal, Ranboo knew that. The evidence was too much to not be suspicious of something abnormal... how he could have sworn he saw Tommy's hands light with electricity at school when Fundy was dead named and the conversation he'd overheard later that day with between him and Phil and even how Eret had seemed to know he was outside the door and somehow silently communicated it to Phil... the ceiling melting from last night and the water that had appeared out of nowhere and splashed Sapnap and Connor in his maybe-not-dream... how Connor had seemed to be underwater for abnormally long periods of time, not that Ranboo could know for certain being as he couldn't swim himself, plus there was also the literally drowning thing yet somehow not being dead and everyone acting like it hadn't happened...

He felt like he was crazy, but Ranboo was certain that something was wrong, the feeling of suspicion that had grown in him in his first few days finally becoming something like fear of what was being hidden from him... of what was happening to him. Something was wrong with him, and something was wrong with the people he was surrounded by... he was being lied to. He could tell, and he was certain that what had happened to him hadn't been a dream, and that everything had actually happened despite the fact that everyone was acting normal. It all added up. His damp hoodie and the way everyone had been whispering quietly together any time he entered a room since he woke up... how the adults seemed to be watching him slightly closer, as well as Technoblade. Plus Dog was here now, her purring presence next to him comforting his brain as it started to go into fight or flight mode, adrenalin starting to make him jumpy. Dog being here had to be the most condemning evidence that some Stranger Things level weird crap was happening here.

To say that Ranboo was scared shitless would be the understatement of the century. 

_Oh God I'm going to need so much therapy if I ever get out of foster care_ , Ranboo thought to himself as he checked how much food he had left from the package Purpled had left for him when he arrived, throwing the last four protein bars that remained and the bottle of untouched water into his school bag on a whim, adding his memory book and sketchpad despite the fact he didn't have art today after a second of thought. He felt like he might need them for some reason. _He better start saving for it now because that crap was going to be expensive with the amount of baggage Ranboo already had without all of this weird magicky business added on..._

He kissed Dog on the head, leaving her on his made bed before walking down the stairs to meet Tubbo and Tommy to walk to the school bus with his school bag on his back and a scared, heavy feeling in his stomach. It was unusual for him to make his bed... maybe that should have been their first sign that Ranboo was going to run earlier than they had expected. 

Ranboo climbed onto the bus behind Tommy and Tubbo, slipping into his usual seat behind the pair and in front of Purpled and Fundy, placing his bag on the empty seat next to him as the two pairs began having their own conversations, unintentionally leaving him feeling isolated as well as scared of what was happening to him...

He was fifth wheeling. 

_You don't belong._

Ranboo hugged himself, pulling up the hood of his grey hoodie as he curled in on himself, trying his best to ignore that voice that planted seeds of doubt amongst the small voices of reason that were trying to get him to stay... even though he hadn't even realised he'd planned to run yet.

You see, Karl had made a mistake without realising it.

When he had been in the future, running around the empty halls of the school, he had assumed it was a Saturday due to the lack of students and teachers present and just assuming they had been practising another "what to do if everything goes to shit in public" drill, not thinking to check the clocks on the wall for the time or check the calendar behind reception, instead watching as George healed the wound on the back of an unconscious Dream's head and Technoblade sat on the floor with his knees bent and a surprised expression on his face as everyone searched frantically, Phil looking distraught with worry as he rushed around the corner, shouting if they had found Ranboo.

Because he had assumed it was a Saturday.

It had never occurred to him that they might have all stayed after school that Friday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but in my defence we all know Ranboo would call a cat Dog just because he thinks it's funny...
> 
> Corpse:  
> Normal Human  
> (He Won't Be Appearing In Person In This Book, Just Mentioned)
> 
> Velvet:  
> Level 1  
> Empath  
> (Ability To Get Along With Anyone)
> 
> Callahan:  
> Level 2  
> Animal Communication
> 
> Jack:  
> Level 3  
> Weather Manipulator
> 
> HBomb:  
> Level 3  
> Lust Manipulation 
> 
> Charlie:  
> Level 4  
> Reality (Science) Manipulation
> 
> Antfrost:  
> Level 4  
> Air Manipulation  
> Mild Ability To Manipulate Other Elements
> 
> (Ayo 2:30am where I am and my brain go brrrr no sleep for you???)
> 
> Also you guys aren't bothered by me swearing when I write in notes right? Just cause that's how I speak cause ya know... awkward British existence... swearing is like a way of life lmao... not for everyone but you've seen how Tommy swears... I can like not if it bothers a lot of you though... I'll just need to find alternatives to express my annoyance instead of "pissed off" and stuff lmao :P


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where everything goes to shit once again 👍

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic just went up over 1000 hits in about 24 hours since I posted the last chapter?? Crazy. Anyway this chapter would have been out sooner but my cat is a needy little shit who was making it extremely difficult for me to write and check this over and because I'm a weak little bitch I caved instantly and gave her the attention she wanted because she's adorable and could probably get me to do anything she wants by just meowing at me. 😔✋

Ranboo's first class of the day was Science, and while he was relatively good at the subject and didn't particularly need to put much effort in to get decent grades, he found most of the material extremely boring. Plus he didn't have anyone else he knew in the class as Tommy and Tubbo were in a different class, Fundy had literally dropped out of science to do extra programming classes, and Purpled was in his super smart people Science with someone called Charlie who he had met briefly when the teen bounded over to them the moment they were in school and stole Purpled away talking about a project or something. Either way this meant he was now surrounded by people who he felt were giving him weird judgmental looks and whispering about him as he sat at the back of the class with his headphones in and wishing he was aloud to have his hood up in school to provide a barrier between him and the rest of the world.

Apparently the teacher had something about students wearing headphones in her class so he'd hidden the cable beneath his hoodie just to be safe.

He was hunched over his work and quietly keeping to himself as last class the teacher had seemed to decide that she didn't like him for some unknown reason (he had suspicions she was friends with his psychology teacher), and he didn't want her taking it upon herself to make him day even worse, having already started it off in the worst way possible.

"Mr Watson." She called in her annoying nasally voice about half way through the class.

Ranboo didn't respond, mainly because he didn't think anyone would refer to him as Mr Watson because it wasn't his last name so he wasn't listening out for it and hadn't heard her... he was just living with Phil, he hadn't been adopted. He was also trying to drown the anxious feeling in his gut with music, so when he didn't hear his name being called, he wasn't listening for her to call Phil's last name as he didn't consider it his own. On top of that, he was working too, meaning he was concentrating on that and had blocked out the rest of the class's conversations.

"Mr Watson!"

Ranboo was either ignoring her or genuinely hadn't heard her as he continued to scribble answers on his science sheet. The rest of the class couldn't tell as they turned to watch the teacher pick on the new kid.

"MR WATSON!" 

Ranboo looked up, wondering who was getting shouted at as it was slightly breaking his concentration as he was trying to remember everything he could about The Life Cycle of Stars (one of the only subjects in science he actually enjoyed), only to discover that everyone had turned in their seats to look at him and the teacher was glaring with a vicious look in her eyes from by her desk.

_Uhhhh..._

"Finally. When I call you by your name, Mr Watson, it is generally widely known as good manners to respond. I'm sure even with your troubled past you should know that."

The class seemed shocked she would say that... that she was allowed to say that. They all knew that Ranboo was the new foster kid of the Watson family, and he had in fact been one of the most talked about topics of conversation for maybe an hour or two after the students had first learned of his existence earlier that week. Mainly because quite a few of the students had thought that he was quite attractive, his height and "broody troubled kid" vibes (as eloquently put by a junior in his and Tubbo's English class - not that he knew that) apparently making him "hot" and the occasional grin that was glimpsed when he was with Tubbo and Tommy that made his entire face light up making him sky rocket to being thought of as one of the most attractive guys in school... alongside Dream (since he got his hair cut into a mullet and had a growth spurt last summer) and Eret (who had the advantage of being comfortable with themselves as well as being naturally pretty)...

Tommy had overheard a group of girls talking about him on Tuesday and had spent the rest of his computing lesson with Tubbo (Ranboo was in psychology with Eret, Niki and Sapnap) complaining about how it was possible that Ranboo was getting all the girls after being here for only two days without even knowing he was doing it and he still hadn't even had a girlfriend when Tommy was clearly better. Fundy (who was sat opposite the pair) had shamelessly told him it was because Ranboo was kind of cute and was funny when he wanted to be whereas Tommy was just plain annoying, which resulted in Tommy ignoring him for the rest of the day after the laptop Fundy had been programming on seemingly inexplicably exploded, sparks of electricity making zapping sounds as Fundy coughed as he waved the smoke out of his face. It was also the reason why Fundy hadn't been invited the hang out with them at The Lake that afternoon.

Ranboo frowned, genuinely confused as to why he was being picked on and finding he was too tired to be mad that she had made a childish jab at his rough history with the foster care system (he hadn't slept since he'd woken up yesterday morning after being unconscious for a suspicious amount of time), "But my last name isn't Watson Miss."

"Don't talk back! That'll be detention Mr Watson, listening to music in class, talking back when challenged..." She started rummaging through the top draw of her desk looking for a detention slip. 

The rest of the class seemed just as confused as Ranboo was.

"Miss, I don't think I talked ba-"

Ranboo stopped speaking when she flourished the half written detention slip in his direction, a clear threat that she wouldn't hesitate to make his life worse if he said one more word.

He accepted the detention slip from her without further argument, much to her disappointment as she begrudgingly returned to teaching the class after Ranboo had removed his headphones. Ranboo knew it was unfair treatment towards him, he knew if he told Phil then he would probably sort of it out for him as Phil had signed something for him saying he was allowed to listen to music in class if he needed to as long as it wasn't disruptive after Ranboo almost had an anxiety attack on his second day during PE when he wasn't able to ground himself using music. Plus after seeing Phil go mama bear mode for Eret and apparently Fundy as well (even though he hadn't actually witnessed that one, just seen Tommy's satisfied grin later that day as he told the story at dinner) he assumed he might do it for him too... but Ranboo found that he couldn't be bothered, some bitter part of him feeling like it was somehow revenge for them keeping secrets from him when it was in fact the opposite, Ranboo just letting himself be bullied by his teacher.

His detention slip read, " _Disruptive in class, playing distracting music loudly while refusing to complete work, bad attitude and talked back when challenged_."

None of those things were true and were actually just outright lies but Ranboo found he just didn't have the energy to be bothered about it, resigning himself to afterschool detention and having to face Phil's disappointment later on.

 _Probably meant that honeymoon phase of Ranboo being an alright kid was over and he was finally getting kicked out_.

Ranboo didn't wait after class for Tubbo and Tommy like he had last time he had science, but it turned out they had already left when he spotted them up ahead in the crowd (Tommy's tall, lanky body and bright red t-shirt standing out in the sea of teens), clearly so caught up in their conversation that they hadn't realised that they hadn't stopped to wait outside Ranboo's classroom, which meant he would have been waiting for no one if he had waited... so it was a good job that he didn't.

The bitterness that Ranboo had been feeling all day grew, as did the heaviness of his heart.

_They probably just don't like you so they didn't wait._

He ignored the voice of self doubt that seemed to be much more active than normal today and told himself that it was fine that they'd forgotten him, it wasn't like he had been planning on waiting for them... didn't that make him a hypocrite?

Ranboo made his way to his next class by himself, head and shoulders hunched and headphones back on as he dragged his feet. He felt out of it, almost like he was watching himself make decisions from somebody else's point of view as he went about his day.

His next class was double English, and he was quiet through the entire two hour lesson as he sat next to Tubbo chattering on and on until Ponk eventually came over to help Tubbo with his essay and the boy fell quiet as he concentrated, seemingly not noticing that Ranboo hadn't uttered a single word throughout the class and had had his earphones on with the volume turned right up since he entered the room, clearly not having heard anything Tubbo had said to him during the class.

After English, Tommy was waiting outside the classroom for them and immediately started rambling to Tubbo about how Grace finally said hi to him first in the corridors when he was on his way here, apparently she had even smiled and waved. Tommy was very excited about it and when Tubbo suggested he might have a crush with a teasing grin Tommy's face suddenly became disgusted... "B-but she's _American_!" He had whispered in horror, looking truly grossed out at the idea... but both Tubbo and Ranboo knew that even if Tommy might deny it, he definitely didn't think of the American girl as just a friend.

The pair didn't notice when Ranboo slipped away, finding a surprisingly peaceful sanctuary in the school toilets that were by the languages classrooms.

Ranboo locked himself in a cubicle, pushing the toilet seat down and sitting on it with his knees drawn up to his chest and his bag hung on the small hook on the back of the door. He tried not to think about how disgusting the boy's toilets were and how many germs there probably were in this one cubicle...

Some small part of him felt resentful that no one had noticed he was missing and come looking for him... but a bigger part of him knew that he was the issue.

He hadn't been making an effort to include himself in conversations and had been giving off vibes that he wanted to be left alone... that was probably why he wasn't being included today, easily looked over by everyone.

_You're just forgettable like that._

Ranboo didn't leave the cubicle to meet with them for lunch, staying sat on top of the closed toilet as his brain whirred and he resisted the urge to scratch at his arm yet again, his head resting on his knees and his hood up.

He became completely quiet and still when someone stumbled into the bathroom, holding his breath as he listened to them splash water in their face before they stumbled out a few moments later without discovering him hiding in there.

_Good. He didn't want to be known as Bathroom Kid or something awful like that._

Ranboo could finally have the space to think without being surrounded by people all the time.

He slowly started adding all the evidence up in one big mental list as he sat there hugging himself.

_"Puffy called yesterday to tell him that she found another one."_

_"If Ranboo wasn't here I'd fucking burn you for that one..."_

_"Phil says no fighting in the house. Plus Ranboo is here...so behave."_

All the meaningful glances exchanged...

_"George could have fixed us up in a few minutes and he never would have known!"_

_"This is Fundy, he's usually a lot more talkative."_ Ranboo's head had felt like it was being crushed in a vice while Fundy had been silent, concentrating... a coincidence maybe? Yet nothing had seemed like a coincidence since he'd arrived at Phil's house... _  
_

_"Dream lives with Sam and Puffy" "As in the Puffy that found me?"_ More heavy glances... _a nod._

_"You're automatically in Phil's class"_

Why? He wasn't that messed up... right? At least not that people knew... he was starting to doubt his sanity after everything that had happened in the past week.

...

Eret and Fundy's oddly intense eye contact and like... silent conversation when Fundy was dead named...

Purpled whispering to Tommy... _"Come on Tommy, remember Phil's training. Keep it under control."_

Keep _what_ under control?

What training?

His own freaky episode in the school toilets... _these toilets_... and all the ones that had followed afterwards.

_It wasn't normal._

Every time someone was injured... they would disappear with George and they would seem perfectly fine when Ranboo would see them later no matter how severe the injury, whether it be a black eye or a sprained ankle...

The conversation he had overheard between Tommy and Phil... _"You could have seriously hurt him if you lost control"_

_"Why did I get a text from Tommy claiming it was an emergency? Did Ra- oh hi Ranboo."_

Why had Connor automatically assumed the emergency was something to do with him? Was it purely because he was the new kid, the liability, or was there more to it?

The water that had appeared out of nowhere and splashed Connor and Sapnap... _"Purpled I'm going to get you for that one!"_

How could that possibly have been Purpled's fault - _unless he had somehow controlled the water -_ it wasn't possible.

And the vague memory he had of drowning and then him and Foolish being trapped in a glowing sphere of golden light before he was suddenly aware of his surroundings again, hearing people around him as he started coughing up water and choking on it, his lungs and throat burning and his body too weak to roll onto his side to cough up the water in a way that meant he wasn't swallowing it again.

He had felt an odd feeling of power be absorbed into his body during that golden light with Foolish... he didn't know what he meant by that but for a second it had felt like he could do anything and be completely harm free before the feeling disappeared and he was in pain again as George held glowing hands over him and warmth spread from them throughout his body...

Ranboo remembered hearing Tubbo tell Tommy about this show he had found on Netflix called _I Am Not Okay With This_ where the main character discovered they have superpowers... Ranboo hadn't seen it as he found it difficult to watch TV shows, they were a luxury he had never really been allowed to have as a young child so he had no attention span for them, but he imagined that what he felt like right now as he thought about all the odd things that had happened over the past week was how the protagonist of the show felt when they discovered their powers.

A thought suddenly occurred to him...

_Did... did they all have powers?_

He had always suspected there was something off about them... but magical abilities? Was that too far?

Ranboo breathed heavily through his nose as he tried to stay calm as he realised that if everyone around him had strange abilities... then he must have too... the weird teleporting... the ceiling melting and the how his foot had sunk through the floor when he was running back to the house that morning after discovering that his nightmare probably wasn't just a nightmare...

His eyes glanced around the graffitied walls of the cubicle frantically as the floor started caving in on itself, a hole beginning to open up as his panic grew at the realisation that he wasn't just abnormal (which he had always known) but that he was a _freak_... _some sort of **monster**_. Ranboo panted as he scrambled away from the hole in the floor, his breathing erratic and panicked... he felt like he couldn't move... the walls were closing in on him... he needed to get out... but he _couldn't move_...

_I was here_

Ranboo didn't know why those particular words caught his eye out of all the words graffitied on the walls at that precise moment in time. 

The three words were written with a black biro, scratched in messy lines into the plastic door a few centimetres below where his rucksack hung and surrounded by other graffiti that was much easier to read and much more bold.

Ranboo stared at it.

_I was here_

He wondered who had wrote that, the random thought mildly distracting him from the part of his brain that was telling him that he was evil and a freak of nature.

Whoever had written it hadn't signed a name and the writing didn't exactly look new, having been painted over a few times but still sticking out anyway... whoever had scribbled it had probably graduated long ago...

His breathing slowed as he stared at the three word sentence, his panic slowly receding.

Ranboo was here too.

_He was here._

The hole in the floor suddenly closed up, completely disappearing and returning to grey tiles as Ranboo kept his eyes glued to the graffiti. 

_He was here._

Ranboo spent the rest of lunch break sat in the cubicle, wondering who had written the graffiti and if there was a story behind it, thinking about anything and everything but the strong and more than likely possibility of him having magical abilities. 

Nobody but Purpled and Technoblade realised he didn't make an appearance all lunch.

Ranboo sat through his last class of the day (which happened to be history with Punz) barely paying attention to what his teacher was saying despite the fact that History was one of his favourite subjects purely because it was so interesting. Today he found that his mind was consumed by other thoughts and worries and therefore making him physically and mentally incapable of any semblance of concentration on the lesson.

He had his headphones on again, as the history teacher didn't care as long as you did well, and his leg was bouncing as thoughts and theories whizzed around his brain. It was a good job Eret wasn't in this class as Ranboo's panic and more and more frequent intrusive thoughts filled with self loathing would be giving him the worst headache he'd had in years.

_If they all had powers... what were they and how on earth did they manage to keep them hidden from everyone?_

He glanced sideways at Niki and George talking on the other side of the classroom... _he was almost certain George's magical thing was healing and Purpled's must be water... was Sapnap's something to do with fire maybe?_

"You okay Ranboo?" Punz asked from the seat next to him after noticing the frown on his face, making Ranboo jolt slightly in surprise as he was brought out of his head before he nodded and returned to pretending to do his work while his brain rapidly switched between wondering about the graffiti and whether he was going insane or if it _was actually possible that these people had powers?_

Ranboo studied Punz carefully when he returned to "working". The older teen was texting someone beneath the desk, his history notebook open on the table and a pen was loosely held in his left hand while he texted with the right to make it look like he was working... _if they all had powers then what was Punz's?_

It was hard to believe that a teenager as normal looking as Punz might be hiding a secret as big as magical abilities...

_He was crazy._

He had finally lost it.

He must have, because there was no way magic was real...

There was no way.

_Holy cow he needed therapy and he needed it bad._

_..._

_Man._

_..._

He was losing his mind.

...

There was no way magic was real.

He must have relapsed into forgetting long periods of time again... like when he was younger. He had to have made this all up to fill in the blanks or something like that. That was the only logical explanation to all the impossible things that had happened recently. They simply hadn't happened and he had hallucinated the whole thing...

_But Dog was real right? And she had appeared out of nowhere..._

_No. Puffy probably let you take her with you to Phil's and for some reason your stupid brain decided to forget and create an impossible theory..._

The last bell of the day rang, signalling the end of class and the end of the week and making Ranboo jump out of his skin and Punz give him an odd look. Ranboo was very jumpy today.

Ranboo had been so wrapped up in his own head as half of him tried to convince the other half that he wasn't crazy that he hadn't realised how fast the time had gone.

As he grabbed his bag and started shoving his stuff inside, his hand catching the protein bars and the water bottle that had made his bag feel heavy with guilt all day (he didn't know why he felt guilty... he hadn't done anything wrong...), his phone buzzed in his pocket telling him that he had received a text, as did Punz's and from the way Niki and George also pulled out their phones, theirs did too.

Phil had sent them all a message.

_Watson Community Group Chat_

_< Dadza> Extra class after school. Mandatory attendance. Starts at 3:30 but be there straight after classes. V important._

_< Big T> SINCE WHEN?! I HAD PLANS!!_

_< Small T> what plans? ... complaining about ur lack of gf doesnt equal plans tommy_

_< Big T> SHUT UP TUBBO! I H8 U _

_< Small T> ',:/_

_< Purp> i'm muting this chat bc ur all annoying (not u phil)_

_< Dadza> :D_

_< Purp> i lied, ur annoying too phil_

_< Dadza> :(_

Ranboo turned aeroplane mode on and slipped his phone back into his pocket when more people started joining the conversation.

_..._

_Well crap..._

Ranboo had a two hour long detention.

He packed up his stuff and then followed Niki, George and Punz out of the classroom, picking at his nails absentmindedly despite the fact they were already bitten down to the beds.

"Uhh Punz?"

"Mm?" Punz hummed, not moving his attention away from whoever he was texting.

"I err.. I have detention so I can't come to Phil's class..." Ranboo muttered quietly.

Punz's eyebrows shot up and he looked up from his phone.

"You have detention?" He asked loudly, causing Niki and George to turn to look at them from where they had been talking in front of them, George removing his arm from around around Niki's shoulders as they paused their conversation about whose medieval Pirate clothing phase had been better, Techno's or Dream's (Niki was stubbornly arguing in Techno's favour whereas George was stout Dream supporter... it was an ongoing argument the pair had). "Why?"

"Uhh... um... my science teacher doesn't like me very much." Ranboo answered awkwardly, blushing at the incredulous looks on the three's faces when they realised he wasn't joking and he actually had detention when he pulled the yellow slip out of his pocket. "She just hates me I guess."

"Did you actually do anything? I thought you were more the quiet kid type." Punz grinned teasingly, taking the slip from him. His eyebrows rose even further when he read it. "Well this doesn't sound like you."

Niki took the slip from Punz and her confusion deepened, George was peering over her shoulder to read it and also pulling a face that said he didn't believe what was written there. 

Ranboo felt like that comment about being the quiet kid was sort of an insult from how Punz had said it even though the teen hadn't meant it in that way...

"Errr... I didn't do any of what's written there... but it's fine, I can just catch up on work I'm behind on." Ranboo took the slip back from Niki and put it back in his pocket after checking which room was written on the bottom as being used for detention today.

Niki frowned, "That's really unfair if she gave you detention purely because she doesn't like you."

Ranboo shrugged and interrupted before they got all protective or something, he was fed up of people caring, he could never tell if it was genuine or not, "It's fine. Just tell Phil why I'm not there please?"

George nodded and said he would and so Ranboo left as fast as possible, walking down the locker-lined corridors that were now empty and deserted towards his two hour long detention. He genuinely didn't mind, she hadn't actually written what she wanted him to do in detention on the slip like you were meant to so he would probably just work on catching up on the school he had missed using the catch-up work Sam had given him.

Meanwhile, Punz, Niki and George had just arrived at Phil's classroom to find it much fuller than usual.

Phil looked up as they entered and when he realised there was no Ranboo asked, "Where's Ranboo?"

"He uh... he has detention." George answered, squishing himself in between Dream and Sapnap, who were sat on a table, and making them budge up, almost pushing poor Connor off the edge.

"What... why?" Phil frowned. He hadn't taken Ranboo as being the type to get detention.

"Some rubbish about being disruptive or something in science. Load of bullshit if you ask me." Punz muttered as he flopped into a beanbag. 

Phil sighed, making a mental note to ask Ranboo's science teacher about that later (he needed to find out who it actually was first...) "I suppose it works out better this way anyway... if he isn't here then we can do this properly."

"What exactly is 'this'?" Tommy asked loudly, making quotation marks around "this" with his hands.

Phil gave him an annoyed look, "Power training. As Ranboo isn't here we can do this easier. You can go first Tommy."

Tommy groaned, instantly regretting speaking. 

_Fucks sake. He should have known._

"Dream? How do you feel about going up against Tommy?"

Dream grinned and sprang to his feet, pushing off of the table as Tommy slowly got to his feet with a resigned expression of regret on his face.

"Meditation and control today, Tommy this is specifically important to you as you've been struggling with that lately. You've done this exercise before but in case you've forgotten, you'll have to stay calm and focused for at least five minutes while Dream does his best to provoke you. Whatever he says or does, don't lash out. If you do, he wins. You two have both done this before, do you both remember the rules?" Phil checked, and got nods from both teenagers as they slowly sized each other up in the centre of the mats at the back of the classroom. "Then begin, and please try not to kill each other."

Ranboo glanced up from his geography work, briefly glancing out of the window of the now practically deserted classroom.

It had been relatively full at the start and had slowly filtered out as the time went on, people's detentions coming to an end and leaving just him and one other girl with grey eyes and neon orange hair in the room with the teacher. She was wearing a soft looking cream sweater similar to the knitted one Niki had worn when she spilled water paint powders on her during Ranboo's first day, and pale pink ripped jeans paired with white chunky boots. Her outfit definitely contrasted with the spiky necklace-collar thing she was wearing around her neck and the black nails and multiple piercings and the tattoo behind her ear (that he spotted when she tied her hair in a messy bun) that read "FUCK LIFE" and the rock music he could faintly hear coming from her headphones. She seemed awesome. And the teacher seemed terrified of her, which Ranboo found funny because she seemed alright... and she was 5'2... _tiny_...

He wondered what Phil's extra class was about, if it was more interesting than sitting here filling in countries on a map. 

He couldn't have know that at that exact moment in time, Tommy had finally snapped his last shred of self control at 4:32 seconds into the exercise when Dream mentioned his past, launching himself at the teen with the intent to maim and harm clear in his eyes and having to be restrained by Wilbur and Techno, who gave Dream hard stares, clearly thinking that the smug looking teen had crossed a line. Phil merely sighed, scribbling down Tommy's new PB and crossing out his old one (3:07) as Fundy sighed in annoyance, handing George money and regretting having any confidence in Tommy. Next up was Sapnap and Punz, an explosive duo if he'd ever seen one... that's why he chose them though. Phil had to choose the person who could easily get under their skins as their opponent so they were prepared as best as possible for people who might make them lose their tempers...

Ranboo was alone now, the girl that had previously been sat nearby having left a few minutes ago, winking and saluting at him before she left, which allowed him to read another tattoo that stretched up the side of her hand that said "is there any life on mars?" in typewriter print style calligraphy.

He finished his worksheet on Geography five minutes later and when he looked up he was surprised to see that the teacher monitoring detention had disappeared, taking his stuff with him. Ranboo hadn't even heard him leave and he hadn't thought he had been _that_ focused on his work.

_Weird. They weren't supposed to just leave..._

Ranboo decided that that meant he could leave now and his detention was over, putting his stuff in his school bag and glancing out of the window to find that the sky had darkened ever so quickly, large grey clouds the colour of soot had appeared, large droplets of rain starting to fall rapidly.

A thunderstorm.

Now he came to think of it, the air had been heavy with something for a few hours now... plus it had been rather humid all day.

He was now stood in the entrance hall of the school, staring out of the glass doors as the rain started falling much faster, a crack of thunder pulsing through the air and making him shiver slightly at the raw natural power that the sound held.

Well it looked like he wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Ranboo shuddered, the eerily silent hallways lacking the usual loud laughter of students and the school feeling almost freakily deserted and vacant...

_Kenopsia - The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet._

Kenopsia was a good word for describing what the school building felt like right now as the rain poured outside... it was a merely shell without the teenagers who brought life to the building.

It was 5:03 he discovered when he checked his phone.

He would have thought the school would have had more teachers walking around at this time but apparently not, he found that almost all the teachers had signed out when he checked the book behind reception. In fact the only people who seemed to still be in school were Phil, Ponk, Bad, Sam, the other kids who were part of the community and himself.

_What did he do now?_

He could go join them all in whatever class Phil was doing or he could just wait until it finished maybe?

A thought occurred to him.

If they were all in Phil's class and he was the only one here with no other teachers around... _could he just leave?_

He didn't mean leave to go back to Phil's house.

He meant _leave_. As in just start walking away from all this and never turn back.

The thought was tempting.

He stared at the falling rain and took a step towards it, picturing tantalizing freedom.

It was so close... all he had to do was open the doors and leave...

_He'd never have to wonder if he was going insane again._

"Ranboo!"

Ranboo jumped and turned to see Dream and Karl walking towards him, Fundy walking behind them.

"Oh. Hi." Ranboo said, his voice sounding glum even to his own ears.

Karl and Dream exchanged a wary look, the teen had been studying the doors and the rain with an intense look in his eyes when they first spotted him, his body scarily still as he contemplated running... not that they knew that's what he was thinking about, although they could take a wild guess if the way Ranboo looked almost guilty when they called his name was any hint...

"What're you doing?" Fundy asked suspiciously.

"Uh... just looking at the rain." Ranboo answered. It should have sounded suspicious but it didn't, he sounded genuine. If anything that made Dream more tense and ready to snap into action if needed... Ranboo was a good liar... _it took one to know one_. 

"We were just looking for you, Punz said your detention should be over by now." Karl grinned with forced cheerfulness, linking one of his arms through Ranboo's and starting walking towards Phil's classroom... _and away from the exit_... forcing Ranboo to walk with him. Dream and Fundy followed. 

_They needed to get him to the classroom, once he was there it would be practically impossible for him to escape._

Ranboo could tell that they were purposefully leading him away from the doors.

_They knew he was going to run._

_How did they know?_

_How?_

His head started hurting again and he groaned, coming to a stop and causing Karl to pause his rambling as Ranboo ripped his arm from his grasp to clutch his head.

He felt like his skull was being crushed in a vice, his brain poked and ripped apart as he stumbled backwards and slid down the wall, arms hugging his head as tears started rolling down his cheeks, his eyes scrunched tightly closed.

It hurt.

_It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt..._

He couldn't focus on anything but the blinding white hot pain that was sizzling through his head, burning him and melting his skull as it searched for something... what it was looking for? He didn't know.

He sobbed and sobbed as the endless pain seemed to burrow its way into his very soul.

"FUNDY STOP IT!" Ranboo felt the pain subside instantly and he slowly opened his eyes to see Dream shaking Fundy with a hard look on his face while Karl was crouched next to him with a scared and horrified expression.

He didn't know how long he'd been trapped the pain of his own head for, but it looked like it might have been a while if Dream and Karl's scared faces where anything to go by.

"I'm sorry!" Fundy gasped, seemingly breaking free of some trance he'd been in and sagging into Dream. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to! I got stuck and I couldn't stop... he trapped me and I couldn't stop..."

Fundy dissolved into panicked tears. He had thought he wasn't going to be able to stop, that he was going to end up killing Ranboo and maybe even himself...

_Was that... was that Fundy?_

Had _Fundy_ been the one who had caused him so much pain?

Was that Fundy's power?

_Holy cow, he wasn't losing his mind. They actually did have abilities..._

Ranboo scrambled to his feet and backed away from them, his head throbbing painfully as he did so, and causing Dream and Karl to turn towards him, Fundy wiping his eyes and forcing himself to stop crying as they watched carefully for Ranboo's next move.

All Dream could think was, _"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."_

Ranboo's eyes darted frantically around the corridor and flitted between the three boys who stood before him as he continued to back away.

Dream's eyes widened as the floor around Ranboo's feet started rippling away from him in waves.

_Fuck. Reality Manipulator._

Ranboo's panic intensified as he started to lose control on that part of him that he had kept hidden all his life, hidden from himself and from the rest of the world, the dark pit of overwhelming power pulling at the leash it had been kept on since he was young and making the floor around him ripple as he only just managed to stay in control.

"No. No no no no." Ranboo muttered frantically, staring at the three wide eyed boys and then at the moving floor. "Not here. Not now. Stop. Stop!" The rippling only intensified and the ceiling started to changed texture, becoming almost like heated plastic as it started to melt. Ranboo pointed in their direction disbelievingly, making brief eye contact with Dream before his eyes locked with Fundy's, "You... no. I thought I made it all up- there's... there's no way..."

Dream swallowed nervously and stepped in as Karl frantically texted the group chat for backup as discretely as possible, _fuck Phil was so much better at this than he was_ , "Ranboo, it's going to be alright. I promise. Just breath with me-"

Ranboo backed away another step when Dream stepped closer.

"Ranboo I know it's scary. Trust me, out of everyone here I know. I understand. You can control it, I promise you."

Ranboo made eye contact with Dream yet again and he could see the raw power flickering behind the terrified teen's eyes as the air surrounding his hands visibly started to ripple and move and his body started to tremble with surplus energy from trying to suppress his power and stay in control. It was going to destroy him, and Dream could tell he was powerful even if he didn't know what level he was. He felt Fundy start using his power behind him.

He saw the moment Ranboo made his decision, something in his eyes flickering milliseconds before he dashed away from them.

"Shit." Dream spat, immediately sprinting after him and focusing on gathering his power as he went, calling out to Karl, "GET BACK UP! GET IT FUCKING NOW!"

Karl was way ahead of him though, already running in the opposite direction down the hallway towards Phil's classroom.

Fundy was behind him, and he could feel the teenager doing his best to try and mute Ranboo's powers... to steal them. But it wasn't working... he was too far away and while Fundy could get a power read from this distance, he couldn't take away Ranboo's powers unless they were in physical contact.

That left it up to Dream.

Ranboo's mind was blinded by panic, every decision he made purely based on his instincts to survive as he ran. He could tell that there were two people behind him... and gaining fast, all of his senses felt heightened and he could hear them breathing as they gained, each footstep too loud in the empty school and echoing through his head.

He could have sworn that extra heartbeat pulsed and sent out a flare of power. Statistics flashed before his eyes as he ran... _Probability of Fundy falling: 89%_

Seconds later, Fundy tripped on a shoelace he had definitely tied earlier and he faceplanted, groaning and pushing to his feet immediately, now much further behind the two ahead of him.

Up ahead of him, the floor started to rippled upwards, a wall forming and stopped his escape. 

_No!_

_No no no no._

He wasn't fast enough to get there before it formed.

He slammed into the wall just as it reached the top of the corridor, making it so he couldn't pass.

Ranboo turned and saw Dream and Fundy advancing, although Dream was much closer and running faster, in his mind seeming like the most dangerous of the pair...

He panted heavily as he tried to control the power that was influencing most of his decisions right now, the magic taking control as it pumped through his veins.

He felt powerful.

_It terrified him._

Just as Dream was about to reach him, Ranboo let go of his last shred of self control, letting his magic take over. He disappeared, popping up on the other side of the wall just as Dream made a swipe for him in an attempt to get him pinned down.

"Fuck." Dream swore as his fingers grasped thin air, instantly making the wall he had formed disappear and starting running again, but Ranboo had had a head start and was once again far away, Dream's wall had only served in slowing himself down.

Ranboo knew he was lost, he'd thought he had a better map of the school lay out in his mind but apparently not.

_Crap crap crap crap._

He had spent a total of three days in this school while Dream had spent years... that knowledge was currently being shown as Ranboo hesitated before dashing down a corridor that Dream knew to basically be a dead end.

_Where was the closest exit again?_

He kept running.

The magic in his body was telling him that he had to, and Ranboo was inclined to agree.

Suddenly, the ground in front of him moved upwards just enough to catch his foot and send him flying, Dream having morphed the floor into a small loop to catch Ranboo's foot as he ran.

Ranboo winced as he landed hard on his front, instantly scrambling to his feet and setting off at a run again, leaving his rucksack abandoned on the floor where it had fallen after the strap ripped when he tripped. Dream had caught up now, and grabbed the back of Ranboo's hoodie, causing both of them to trip and fall, Dream using the momentum to wrap his arms around Ranboo in a way that meant he couldn't wriggle away and pin him down with his hands behind his back, letting out a whoosh of air and grimacing when Ranboo elbowed him hard in the stomach. 

_Fuck that hurt. This kid knows how to fight._

Dream felt Ranboo's panicked breathing increase when he realised that despite his struggling, Dream wasn't moving and he was pinned down, and wished that he had Phil's empath powers or the ability to mind control like Schlatt or Niki or even Eret so he could do this easier rather than with brute force.

"Ranboo. Ranboo please stop. I don't want to fight you but you can't leave. It's dangerou-" Dream begged, his voice cutting off when Ranboo suddenly bucked desperately, somehow managing to throw him off.

Fundy winced as Dream smacked the back of his head against the wall he went flying into, instantly crumpling to the floor and losing consciousness as Ranboo staggered away from him, his powers becoming more and more out of control as he got further and further away.

Fundy's eyes went wide as he concentrated on detecting the teen's power level right now.

_No way._

_No fucking way._

He watched as Technoblade seemingly appeared out of nowhere in front of Ranboo, having run all the way from Phil's classroom and along the floor below them and up the stairs at the end of the corridor after a tip from Karl (who was using his power to see into the future as best as possible and had a feeling) to try and stop him, only for Ranboo to disappear completely before appearing behind him and continuing to run...

Techno's mouth fell open and he hesitated in surprise for a moment before chasing after him.

 _This was getting ridiculous now_ , Fundy thought to himself as he continued to run, starting to get out of breath now. _Why did the teen have to be so damn powerful as well as being smart?_

Up ahead of Ranboo, some sort of portal similar to the ones Karl created appeared, it looked like someone had ripped a slit in the fabric of reality to make a portal to another part of the world...

Ranboo disappeared through it and Fundy got a glimpse of trees before it vanished instantly, leaving Fundy and Techno to skid to a stop as Phil appeared with Karl next to him and Tommy, Tubbo and Purpled a few steps behind, shouting desperately, fear clear in his tone "Where is he?"

There were more people behind him, but the backup had been too slow. Ranboo was gone.

Phil spotted Dream lying unconscious on the floor and his mouth fell open, his eyes snapping to Fundy and Technoblade and taking in their defeated expressions as George rushed over to Dream's body, his hands glowing as he located the injury.

"What happened?" Tommy asked, walking over to where Techno was sat on the floor with a mixture of surprise and defeat on his mildly impressed face.

"Nobody told me he was smart." Techno grumbled. "That's what happened."

Fundy might have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious and they hadn't failed.

"He got away." Fundy whispered. "He's gone."

"What? No. No... you three are the most... the best... there's no way he could have escaped... it's too dangerous for him out there..." Tubbo gasped, his face crumpling with worry.

Techno, Dream and Fundy might have been the most powerful ability wise but clearly Ranboo had outsmarted them...

"What bar is he? Did you at least get that? What's his power?" Purpled asked Fundy.

"Some sort of reality manipulator. He like teleported or something and made the ground morph like Dream can..." Fundy answered. He gulped, "And his power reading..."

All eyes were on him as he hesitated.

The silence was heavy until Sapnap hissed, "Spit it out dude."

Fundy closed his eyes as he muttered, "Bar seven."

There was silence.

"That's not a thing." Tommy said stubbornly from where he was crouched next to Techno, trying to make it seem like he wasn't checking for injuries when they all knew he was. "It's impossible."

"It is a thing now." Fundy answered, the air solemn. 

"How?" Foolish asked, and his face paled when Fundy gave him a look that said "you already know" and he got his answer. _Because he had revived him._

He had somehow boosted Ranboo's powers...

How? None of them knew...

Karl was holding Ranboo's broken backpack in his hands, having found it on the floor.

Phil turned away, but it didn't stop the teenagers from seeing the tears that rolled down his face as he walked away from them, his shoulders curved in defeat as thoughts filled with self hatred plagued him.

_Ranboo had only been with them for a week. How had he messed up as a parent so badly?_

_The kid had literally died and been brought back to life and now this?_

_Where did he go wrong?!_

Dream slowly sat up with George's help as the rest of the teenagers stared at each other, the gravity of the situation making them quiet and their faces serious.

Ranboo was the most powerful individual they'd ever met.

And he was gone, out in the world without truly knowing the dangers that having powers brought...

The worst thing was, where he had gone, no one could follow. 

They all knew that the only thing they could do was wait, and hope that he returned.

None of them wanted to think about what would happen if he didn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To that one person who commented on chapter 2 yesterday that Ranboo was going to be a new power level... who are you and where are you getting your information? Are you Karl in disguise? Tell me now or the penguin gets it... 🐧🔫
> 
> Ranboo:  
> Level 7  
> Reality Manipulator  
> > Teleportation  
> > Reality Shaping Abilities - Think Of The World As Being Clay... He Can Just Mould It To His Will (Like Dream)  
> > Can't Travel To Other Realities  
> > Ability To Create Portals To Other Parts Of The World... So Can Teleport Others  
> Abilities From Foolish  
> > Slighter Longer Life  
> > Heightened Abilities In Stressful Situations  
> > Can Control Probability To A Mild Extent (Because Of Foolish's Ability To Control Probability Of Death In Certain Situations Adapting To Fit His Power)
> 
> (Also Cavetown is art and I just realised how much my music taste contrasts... like 4 hours ago I was listening to Yungblud and Arctic Monkeys and stuff and now I'm listening to Cavetown 💀)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ranboo's out in the world... or worlds... after discovering his powers... what could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be out yesterday but then I like passed out from exhaustion during Eret's stream last night by accident while writing and then continuously fell asleep by accident today when I was trying to write as well after finishing my exams for today... apparently that's what happens when you don't sleep properly for way too long and then try to write a chapter operating on only an energy drink and a pizza slice lmao.
> 
> Anyways I was kinda nervous to post this chapter cause I wasn't sure if you guys would like it and I thought about changing the plot line at the last moment to not this but didn't anyway... so yeh... hopefully enjoy?

Ranboo passed out the moment he was through whatever the hell that portal thing he had created was.

Probably not the best thing his body could have chosen to do in this situation but his teenage body was exhausted from a combination of using his powers properly for the first time in his life and fighting with Dream, and it needed to recuperate. Apparently the best way of doing that was lying unconscious and defenceless on the cold hard floor in the middle of nowhere for hours...

When he woke up again it was dark and cold and he had no idea where he was or what time it was.

Ranboo shivered as he slowly pushed himself up from where he had been lying on the freezing ground, trying to figure out where he was despite the fact it was almost pitch black. He could only just see his hand when he waved it centimetres in front of his face. When he brought his hand away from his face, his misjudged where the ground was as he couldn't actually see it, so when he his hand hit something that felt like tree bark he jumped out of his skin before calming his breathing and slowly following it, blindly letting his hand travel along it in the dark and hoping he didn't make contact with another human or a spider or something. He didn't, his hand just finding a large tree a few centimetres away from him.

So he was still in that forest that he was pretty sure he had portalled into, he had managed to gather that he was in a wood of some sort before passing out, he just hadn't been sure... it wasn't like his brain had been the most reliable thing in his life lately.

_Okay... what now?_

_What next?_

He felt tired, but he wasn't sure whether that was from spending who knows how long passed out on the ground or if it was from using these magical abilities he apparently now had.

Maybe it was both.

Ranboo wondered where the survival instincts he had had all his life had suddenly gone, his brain going completely blank as it seemingly chose not to remember anything he had ever learned that would help him in this situation.

_Great. Thanks brain, really fricking useful._

Eventually he decided to just sit still and wait. Daytime had to come at some point, and in the meantime trying to find his way in the dark was just stupid as when it did get light he'd have no idea where he was and where he'd already been.

He already regretted running. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he had just gotten spooked and extremely freaked out (understandably), running from possibly the best place he had ever stayed. Phil hadn't been that bad... and Ranboo had even sort of started making genuine friends... plus Dog was still with Phil, he needed her back.

It took two hours for the sun to start rising but it felt like much longer to Ranboo, who didn't have a watch (not that he'd be able to see it in the dark) and had discovered that his phone had fallen out of his pocket at some point and was now gone... any chances of getting a light source - _or people you could call for help_ \- now completely gone.

The night ever so slowly began to change from the pitch black that surrounded him like a suffocating blanket to a bluey-grey morning just light enough for him to finally see his surroundings, the air cold and refreshing and misty, and the plants around him covered in a light layer of silvery dew. If Ranboo hadn't been in a terrifying situation which included being abandoned potentially hours away from civilisation with literally the only thing he had being the clothes on his body (which were cold and damp and dirty from his night spent on the ground), no food, no water and no phone... if none of that had been happening, then he would have paused to appreciate the peacefulness of the natural beauty of the dewy woods surrounding him. It was like the beauty of the thunderstorm... just softer and without the raw pulsing power. As it was, Ranboo was in fact in that situation, and therefore in a state of panic, not knowing how to get himself out of the situation alive, finally having landed himself in a situation he seemingly couldn't get out of.

_Man._

Ranboo decided that it would probably be best if he just set off in one direction and stuck to that direction, using the logic that theoretically he had to come across someone at some point... maybe they had a phone he could use to call Phil.

_Wait. No._

He didn't want to call Phil... right?

_You do. You need him._

_No. No I don't. What I need is to get away from him and the rest with their crazy powers and lies._

_You have powers too. They're like you... plus they have Dog._

_No. I'm dangerous enough as it is, a liability... what if they hurt me? And Dog... she can look after herself._

_But they're like you... and you know you need Dog just as much as she needs you..._

_No._

_But Dream said something about it being dangerous before you-_

-threw him into a wall and knocked him unconscious. 

He had hurt Dream. Had hurt him badly.

Guilt and worry consumed him. Was Dream alright? He had no way of knowing... he just had to assume that George had healed him...

_Assuming that George's power was actually healing and he wasn't wrong..._

He was dangerous and a burden... he shouldn't be around people if all he did was hurt them...

Since arriving all he'd done was be exactly that. A burden.

He hurt people by being too stupid to swim or by stealing food... his latest stunt being running away.

Ranboo shook off his worry and guilt.

He needed to concentrate on himself right now, not George or Dream or Phil or even his insecurities.

They weren't the ones abandoned god knows where.

The sun rose in the east, and it was currently behind him, which meant that was where east was and the way he was facing was west, he was able to tell because the watery morning sun just about visible if he found the right position to be able to see through the branches above his head.

Ranboo shivered, his clothes damp from lying on the ground all night. He wished he still had his rucksack, without it he knew he stood practically no chance of surviving... no food, no water, no phone... it wasn't looking good for him.

He decided to go to his right in the direction of North. Seemed like the best place to start.

A glint in the dewy grass caught his eye just before he was about to leave, like broken glass glinting in the sun. Glass wasn't something you just found in nature.

For a moment, Ranboo felt hope as he rushed over to the area the glint had come from. If there was glass there then that meant there must be people nearby. 

It wasn't glass.

Well technically it was... but he hadn't been hoping for this.

Instead of finding the smashed bottle he had expected, Ranboo found his phone.

Usually this would have been a good thing. Except Ranboo's phone must have flung out of his pocket as he fell out of his portal, hitting a tree and bouncing off of it into the grass, because the screen was completely smashed, the top of the phone so smashed that he could actually see the inside. 

His hope crumbled as he gingerly picked it up.

_His phone._

Ranboo desperately tried to turn his phone on despite the fact he knew it was pointless, sighing when it didn't turn on and slipping the broken device into his pocket just in case.

You never know, it could come in handy.

He set off into the woods, long legs carrying him far despite the fact that he was tired and exhausted and starting to get hungry. 

Ranboo must have walked for hours, the sneakers Phil had bought him starting to give him blisters as they weren't meant for this sort of travel... Ranboo wished he'd had the common sense to wear his old trainers that he had had for years yesterday morning or whenever it was that he'd left Phil's house. At least they were good for running.

Eventually, the woodland started to thin, the trees becoming more and more scarce until eventually he was walking through fields. Ranboo didn't know how long he had been walking for, but it felt like forever as his legs started to burn.

The sun was starting to set now, and still Ranboo hadn't seen any sign of civilization anywhere... he was beginning to accept his fate. He was going to die out here.

He'd tried his hardest to use his powers to get back to Phil, knowing that despite how much they all terrified him... Phil had been the best foster parent he'd ever had... and if he stayed here he was going to die. But he couldn't use them, it was like they'd been tired out from his escape from Dream and Fundy and Technoblade... he regretted that now. But it was in the past and he couldn't undo it, although he wondered if that was a power one of them could have... no, surely they would have used it to fix his mistake in running away if they did.

Ranboo gave up, sitting down in the middle of a field with his knees bent and his head bowed in defeat.

He was never going to find anyone out here.

 _What would kill him first?_ He wondered. _The lack of water or food? The fact that it was freezing? Maybe even some wild creature_... after all he didn't even know what part of the world he was in.

Maybe it was because he had completely given up that he didn't notice the small army of people dressed in battered but well-kept bejewelled red armour seemingly appearing out of nowhere, approaching from the long shadows that were being cast by the setting sun and surrounding him, each with thin metal bands twinning across their brows, each metal band with a different coloured jewel in the centre (right between their eyebrows) that glinted in the dark.

He heard the grass crunch almost silently behind him and his head snapped up as he sprang to his feet instantly, his reflexes obviously faster than they had been prepared for as he slipped into a defensive stance, his eyes going wide as he realised how many people there were, raising his hands defensively. If only his powers hadn't been wasted earlier on people who meant him no harm, maybe the situation would have ended differently. 

"Who... where... what?" Ranboo gasped, taking in the warriors who now surrounded him. Because they were warriors, he could tell. He might not be able to see any visible weapons, but there was something in the way they stood... and the small, tiny, miniscule fact that they had literally come from nowhere, there wasn't anywhere to hide for miles and miles, the woods long gone and his only surroundings being flat fields... they definitely weren't normal that's for sure.

_Hooooly cow!_

His senses were going haywire, screaming at him that he was in danger as his powers suddenly flared up to protect him.

 _Oh so now you make an appearance?_ He mentally hissed at the magic roaring through his veins as his hands started to burn with fire... fire that wasn't hurting him as it licked at his skin, casting light away from him as the sun became even lower in the sky.

He didn't know he could do that, but apparently his powers basically had a mind of themselves as the orange flames burned so hot they turned blue, twining up his arms and slightly singing the end of his hoodie as the wind picked up. Ranboo wondered what the hell his power was supposed to be... because it felt like he could practically do anything he wanted with them and he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by that amount of power and responsibility.

The warriors surrounding didn't even flinch at the show of power that should have terrified them if they were from this world, their beautifully jewelled metal headbands glowing like halos as they in turn activated powers.

Ranboo's eyes widened.

 _Oh man_.

He swallowed nervously as his magic continued to scream danger, automatically reacting to the other's magic and the flames burning brighter in response, his exhausted body starting to tremble with repressed magic as he tried not to lose control, hoping that maybe if he didn't attack them they wouldn't attack him... although their offensive positioning and scarily blank faces and _glowing headbands_ suggested otherwise.

"Err... hi?" Ranboo tried.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, the warriors instantly shifting into action.

Ranboo was attacked on all sides by a wave of water that came from nowhere, much like what had happened with Sapnap and Connor but just on a much larger scale and much much more terrifying.

It extinguished the flames that had been building up on his body instantly, despite the way the wind that he'd been focusing on whipping up dispersed most of the wave before it could hit him, blind panic making him more powerful as his body automatically reacted to the threat of water. Ranboo attacked before they could, the earth rippling away from him in a large wave that tripped up most of the warriors, even managing to trap a few by semi-burying them in the ground. He shivered, scared of himself, but didn't give them time to recover, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he pictured a wall of fire appearing around him and mentally pushing out towards them.

To his immense surprise, it worked, a large wall of orange flame appearing instantly and forcing them away from him as the warriors with blue gems in their headbands tried to counter the attack, eventually successfully taking down the fire with water.

Ranboo wondered if controlling his powers was as simple as that, just picturing it in his mind and focusing on channelling it... like when he had a picture in his mind that he wanted to draw and then channelling it onto the page...

What then followed was a rather intense fight that lasted for maybe five minutes at the most. Ranboo was constantly attacked from all angles and despite the fact he was almost unconscious from the amount of power he had used combined with his lack of food and basically everything that had happened in the past week, he managed to defend himself for an impressive amount of time, even managing to take out some of the people attacking him, never killing but instead knocking them out of half burying them alive (making sure to keep their heads and chest above the ground so they didn't suffocate... he didn't want to kill them). 

He parried attacks by teleporting behind the warriors and hitting their heads together with as much force as possible before letting them crumple to the ground unconscious, or punching them in the chin in the hope that it would knock them out or if not at least send them falling backwards, he would use fire and wind and earth to try and counter attacks, unable to use water due to the way it made him freeze in fear. Ranboo would say he had been most impressive when he suddenly appeared in the middle of what he thought was a group of warriors with water abilities because of their blue gems, knocking out the two next to him with swift hits to the back of the head and taking out the rest by suddenly plunging them into the ground, hitting them on the backs of the head with small rocks to stop them from continuing to use their powers like he had with everyone else he had trapped in the earth.

Ranboo was shocked that he was still standing as he struggled to fend off two female warriors with flame tattoos, elbowing one in the stomach like he had with Dream and causing her to stumble backwards and kicking the other in the shins before punching her in the throat, hating that he had to be violent, and making her stumble backwards, both warriors wheezing as they gasped for air.

Who knew growing up in the foster system and knowing basic fighting skills would be so helpful? Maybe it was made more helpful by the fact that his hands were often wreathed in flame and his senses were heightened, meaning he moved faster than normal and felt the attacks coming before they happened.

Ranboo needed to get away... he needed to escape for long enough to portal back to Phil. He would help him. They had to.

He concentrated on teleporting away so he could try and teleport or portal or whatever back to Phil and in the millisecond he stopped moving, he was drenched in a huge wave of water that made him freeze in panic at the same time as someone hit the back of his head. Hard.

Slowly, Ranboo's eyes fluttered shut and he crumpled to the ground, being caught by a girl with bright dyed orange hair and silvery eyes and a tattoo on her hand before he fell. Her face a mixture of emotions that the other warriors couldn't quite decipher as they all stopped moving, breathing heavy now that the powerful teenager had finally been knocked unconscious. 

He'd put up more of a fight than they had planned for, and he had been more powerful... as was shown by the fifteen of their members either just waking up or still passed out on the ground.

Thousands and thousands of miles away, in a completely different country, Karl was sat with his eyes closed, legs crossed, brow furrowed in intense concentration and his hand joined with Sapnap's as they sat on the floor of Tubbo and Tommy's bedroom while surrounded by multiple worried teenagers, using the combination of their power to try and have to see what was happening to Ranboo at that exact moment in time, which weirdly enough was more difficult than time travel and having visions.

Karl had managed to gain a connection seconds before watching Ranboo get knocked out.

He took in all the unconscious bodies littered around the teen as he desperately fought, his adrenaline clearly boosting his powers as he somehow managed to take out a man who was at least three times his weight before hesitating and getting taken down by multiple attacks, a girl with orange hair desperately hitting Ranboo in the back of the head with enough force to make Karl wince. Karl watched as the warriors paused to breath before restraining Ranboo with unfamiliar cuffs made out of an odd material before the girl with bright orange hair, who looked oddly familiar, opened up a bright blue portal which eventually widened enough for them to travel through as they picked up their wounded and stepped through, disappearing from view instantly. He watched as Ranboo was carried through, his head lolling against the shoulder of the woman who carried him. The portal closed behind them, trapping an unconscious Ranboo in a strange world with some very unfriendly looking people...

Karl broke free from the vision with a loud gasp, Sapnap doing the same beside him. He hadn't been able to see what Karl had seen but as Karl had not only been using his own power and had also been draining Sapnap's energy reserve as the two were compatible, he had felt how much power Karl had been using, exhausting Sapnap just as much as he had exhausted himself. 

What the two had just done was dangerous, and the two had done it despite Phil expressing that he didn't want them to, the pair both slicing a knife across their palms and then joining their hands, shuddering as they felt the bond snap into place as their blood and raw magic temporarily combined. Not anyone could do it, and the only way to find out if you were compatible was to try. Sapnap and Karl had both taken a risk because if it didn't work it could go dangerously wrong, permanent injury or loss of control over their powers or even death all consequences of what might have happened if their magic didn't mix... that was why George was here in theory. So that he could "fix" them if it went wrong. They had all known though that he wouldn't be able to if something had happened. 

"Did you see him? Is he okay? What happened? Do you know where he i-"

"Tubbo shhh. Let him get back in his head." Purpled interrupted, nudging the worried teen in the ribs to get him to stop asking questions.

"Right. Sorry Karl."

Karl just shrugged to show that he didn't care, "I saw him."

The energy of the room immediately changed, everyone becoming more alert.

Sapnap sensed the tone of Karl's voice though as George started healing the cut on his palm. "But? There's definitely a but coming, I can hear it in your voice."

Karl sighed, hating that he had to be the one to say it, "He's not okay. I have no idea who they were but they basically kidnapped Ranboo after he put up one hell of a fight-"

"-then we storm to wherever they are and save him!" Tommy interrupted hot headedly, fisting curling protectively.

Karl sombrely shook his head. "We can't."

"What do you mean 'We can't'?" Niki asked, her eyes narrowing, pausing her petting of Dog and getting a displeased tail swipe from the cat.

Dog had joined them not long ago, clearly missing Ranboo and claiming Niki as the one she wanted while her person wasn't here. At first Tommy had tried to get rid of her, but Dog had hissed and dug her claws into the carpet, her tail slightly puffed up in aggression as she narrowed her blue cat eyes at Tommy until he eventually conceded and let her stay. She had then jumped onto Niki's lap (who was sat on Tubbo's bed) and had been curled up "asleep" ever since.

Dream made eye contact with Karl, as if he somehow already knew what Karl was about to say.

"He's no longer in this world. The only one who can get to him is Dream... we don't know if Ranboo can travel between realities or not... so right now the only way we can guarantee he can be saved is Dream..."

George moved onto healing Karl's hand having healed Sapnap and accelerated the process of his body forming more blood so he didn't pass out from blood loss, performing the exact same procedure for Karl.

Dream didn't look surprised, and Karl wondered if Dream somehow already knew who had taken Ranboo.

"So what's the plan?" Purpled asked.

Eret cast him an incredulous look. "Did you not hear Karl? Ranboo isn't in this world anymore. That means the only person who can get to him is-"

"-Dream. Yes I know." Purpled rolled his eyes, "I'm not stupid."

"Then what-"

"Have you only ever travelled by yourself through realities Dream?" Purpled interrupted George's confused questioning.

Dream had a look of understanding on his face as he realised what Purpled was suggesting, "Yes, but there was one time when I first started training with my powers where I tried to travel with George and it didn't work. I mean George is very distracting because he's a massive baby and kept shrieking loudly anytime there was a noise because he was worrying that something was going to go wrong-" George muttered sourly, "-Not true-" "So technically I've only ever been by myself because it didn't work because I couldn't concentrate properly."

Purpled hummed thoughtfully, "So say we tried what Karl and Sapnap just did with someone and got everyone to be quiet..."

Dream nodded. "In theory that could work."

"I don't understand." Tommy muttered. "If only Dream can get through then-"

Wilbur's face lit up as it dawned on him. "Oh my fucking God. Purpled you're a genius."

Tommy looked between them all as it seemed to click for everyone else.

Dog meowed loudly, jumping up from her place in Niki's lap and starting to prowl around the room.

"Is anyone going to tell me or are you all going to continue being fucking pussies and leave me out of it?" He snapped in an annoyed tone.

Dog hissed at him and Tommy wanted to hiss back at the stupid thing but knew he'd look stupid so didn't. _Why did people like cats anyway?_ He'd always been a dog person himself.

Techno rolled his eyes and explained, "What Purpled is saying is that maybe if Dream attempted to connect his powers with mine for example, like Sapnap and Karl did a few minutes ago, and he had the right conditions... then he might be able to take people with him when he travels between worlds."

Tommy's mouth fell open. "That's insane... fucking stupid too..."

"But it might work." Dream breathed, "And I need to try because if I had just been better then Ranboo wouldn't have gotten away and then he wouldn't be-"

"-that's not true Dream. It's not all your fault, it's mine too. I didn't even slow him down before he was gone." Techno grumbled. They all knew he was doing his best to comfort Dream, the teenager uncomfortable with emotions but not okay with letting Dream place all the blame on himself.

The group of teenagers started planning, Quackity and Fundy on door duty to make sure Phil didn't find out that at that exact moment in time, all the teenagers who were currently in the house (plus one very aggravated cat) were planning on how to get Ranboo back in a very dangerous way. So many things could go wrong... but Ranboo was worth it.

Meanwhile, Ranboo had started to regain consciousness, blinking blearily and gingerly feeling the lump on the back of his head and the dried blood. If whoever had hit him there could have just hit him with a little less force that would have been nice because now he had the biggest headache he'd ever had in his life, and he was including the one he'd had when he'd woken up from being _revived_ in that.

_Where was he again?_

_..._

_Running from Phil and the others._

_Walking for miles looking for a town or a city where he could disappear._

_Giving up when he couldn't find civilisation..._

_Thinking he was going to die_

_All those people... fighting them..._

_Finally being overpowered..._

And now he was here.

_Crap he was stupid._

_A stupid stupid idiot._

So where was here exactly?

Ranboo had no idea yet again, waking up in almost darkness for what was most likely the second time that day... although again Ranboo couldn't be sure because of his lack of a working phone and watch and having no idea how long he had been out for.

_Unless he was dead._

Huh...

If he was dead for the second time... this had been different to the first.

_You can't remember the first time you idiot. One minute you were dying and the next you were suddenly awake again... you just missed a big chunk of time._

Ranboo very much wanted to tell his brain to shut up but didn't want to sound insane.

"Holy cow." He muttered to himself as he slowly sat up, squinting in the dimly lit room.

He was in a room. Not a cell, or a prison, or in the afterlife of some sort... unless this was Hell... in which case they had very comfortable beds and Ranboo wanted to meet whoever made them so they could tell him their secrets because _man this bed was comfy_.

The room had a red colour scheme... _so he could be in Hell... he hadn't thought that his foster parents had been serious when they told him he was going to Hell for being curious about the coloured paint on Leslie's nails when he was like six... bit messed up really... at least by that logic some of his friends should be here soon too right? So he wouldn't be alone forever... wait why was there a red colour scheme associated with Hell anyway? Side tracked again for like the fifth time in the past 30 seconds. Focus dumbass._

No windows in the red room... just four red walls and red carpet and a red bed and red flames in the fiery torch lit on the wall and even the door was painted red. In fact... it was quite unsettling.

Ranboo wondered what would happen if he tried to leave... would anything happen, or would he be perfectly fine?

He stared at the red doorknob for awhile before eventually deciding _screw it_... what did he have to lose?

Ever so slowly, he reached out his hand until it was a hairs breadth away from the handle, hovering above the glossy red. It looked like the handle had been coated in fresh blood.

Ranboo shuddered.

_Man._

His fingers wrapped around the handle and he paused, as if waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did.

_Huh, interesting._

He opened the door, wincing when the hinges creaked loudly.

_So much for being discreet._

The room he had been in was connected to a wide corridor, also painted in shades of red. 

He decided he didn't like this red theme. It was very creepy.

Ranboo hesitated on his doorstep.

_Did he really want to leave? This place had off vibes and he didn't know where he was or who had kidnapped him and why._

He didn't see the girl watching him from across the corridor, most likely because she was completely invisible as she followed him down the hallway silently, slightly surprised that the teen hadn't sensed her presence yet with his powers.

Ranboo had felt like someone was watching him for a while now and finally paused, listening carefully as he turned to look behind him.

There was no one there, the corridor deserted and silent apart from him.

_You're just imagining things again._

He eventually continued walking, still being cautious and basically creeping around, eyes flickering from surface to surface as he took in his surroundings.

_Seriously Man... what was with the red colour scheme?_

The invisible girl following breathed out a sigh of relief, moving from where she had frozen pushed up against the wall and brushing a strand of neon orange hair out of her face. 

_That had been close... not really._

Ranboo froze again when the feeling of being watched still didn't go away, this time listening even harder.

There was the slightest sound of someone suddenly stopping, obviously having timed their footsteps to his and not having expected him to stop, followed by the tiniest intake of breath from behind him. Both sounds had been near silent, almost impossible to hear.

Someone was definitely following him.

_Crap crap crap._

_What did he do?_

"I know you're there." Ranboo whispered quietly, turning around and unknowingly looking at the space directly to the left of the orange-haired girl.

He didn't care that it was a cliché line, surely if whoever was following was going to hurt him, they would have done it by now, striking before he was aware of their presence. 

The girl didn't respond, slate-grey eyes narrowing as Ranboo stared directly at where she was frozen, still invisible for a few seconds before he sighed and continued walking, the limp that she knew he had only recently gained making it hard for him to move quietly as he muttered to himself about stupid ghost people.

Eventually, Ranboo reached the end of the corridor and it opened up into a large domed room. He halted on the balcony that span the whole length of the walls of the circular room, looking upwards at the impressive red-stained glass artwork. He couldn't really tell what it was supposed to be, but the darker shades of red in the glass cast a multitude of red light across the huge room, making the white walls look red and the entire room feel... unnerving. 

Ranboo walked to the edge of the balcony, placing his hand on the cool red-painted, intricate metal barrier as he peered over the edge.

_Holy cow._

_What the heck?_

WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?

Ranboo stared wide eyed at what was below him.

He didn't even know what it was.

Ranboo had made the mistake of assuming that there would be an auditorium or maybe a library below him... instead there was a great fat red blob with ominous looking vines growing away from it.

It was fricking huge, the weird egg-like shaped red thing at least a few metres taller than he was, the dark red vines that grew away from it and twined around the pillars supporting the floor he stood on and stretching up the walls, almost looking like thick lines of dried blood.

He was horrified.

_Oh heck._

_Holy cow._

_Sweet mother of Jesus he was screwed._

Ranboo had no idea what he was supposed to do now...

Was he even in his world anymore?

He froze.

_Crap._

He hadn't even considered the fact that there might be other worlds... aliens were one thing... but they weren't in a different reality... right?

Ranboo was so busy staring at the weird egg thing that he didn't notice the orange-haired girl with grey eyes and tattoos appear out of nowhere on the railing next to him, her legs swinging casually as she sat and waited for him to realise she was there.

He jumped when he realised she was there, letting out a small high-pitched screech of surprise and fear that if anyone ever asked about in the future, had never happened.

"Hi!" She grinned, continuing to swing her legs.

Ranboo was in shock, but not so much that he didn't recognise her.

The girl from detention.

He narrowed he eyes distrustfully and put some space between them.

She noticed but stayed sat where she was, body language casual and relaxed despite the fact she was very high off the ground and if Ranboo wanted to, he could probably push her off the railing to her death...

_Huh?_

_Where had that thought come from?_

"Were you... were you the one following me?" Ranboo eventually asked.

"Mhm." She nodded.

Her voice was surprisingly deep for a female, and it had a rasp to it... like she'd been crying or screaming or something.

"Oh." Ranboo replied... "Er... what's your name?"

He couldn't quite believe what was happening right now, everything that had happened to him in the past few days felt like a fever dream.

The orange-haired girl smirked and swung herself backwards, using her momentum to spring off the railings as she rotated and landing on her feet on the balcony. Her piercing grey eyes made eye contact with him and he shuddered, never having been good with eye contact and her eyes that now looked silver in this lighting making him uncomfortable. Ranboo noticed that the soft clothing from detention was gone, instead replaced by a blood-red cloak and black fighting suit...

She grinned, extending a hand to shake his. Ranboo just stared.

"I'm Sally. Nice to meet you."

Hesitantly, Ranboo raised his hand to meet hers, feeling some sort of odd rush burn through his body when their skin made contact.

"I'm Ranboo."

Her smile grew, lighting up her young face.

"I know."

In Dream's reality, he shivered despite the warmth of Tommy and Tubbo's bedroom as he felt a ripple in the fabric of the realities, as if something big had just changed, causing a ripple of power to make small waves in the magic.

"You okay Dream?" Sapnap asked, having been watching the teen carefully for the past hour to make sure he didn't do something stupid.

Dream nodded, "Fine. Perfectly fine."

But it wasn't.

What he had just felt wasn't normal.

Something big had just happened.

But what?

Ranboo released Sally's hand, shuddering again as the odd rush disappeared along with the contact of her oddly tight grip.

_What had he gotten himself into?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clear up any confusion about Ranboo's powers, he can basically manipulate matter which yes, means that he's ridiculously OP. But he also get's tired fast because of it and need's to eat a lot to be able to use his full potential of power. On top of that the reason he's OP in this chapter is because in life threatening situations when his adrenaline is high his powers will draw on any energy they can get from him to be able to be at their strongest, which is why Ranboo is so tired in this chapter and still manages to fight off so many people for how long he did. The reason he's able to manipulate matter as well as he can is also because of Foolish but I won't be explaining that yet cause spoilers... Hope that clears anything up if you were confused!
> 
> Sally:  
> Wouldn't you like to know ;]
> 
> Lmao it's 2:15am here again... oops.


End file.
